


Shuichi and Kaede's Ultimate Love Song

by Signel_chan



Series: seeds of a future [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Baby Shower, Birth, Birthday, Established Relationship, Everything Relates to Babies, Fun Character Cameos!, Making Beautiful Music, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parenthood, Professional Photography, Sickness, Starting A Family, Surprises and Secrets, True Friendship, Work friendships, medical nonsense, supportive friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-10-26 18:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 97,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17750807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/pseuds/Signel_chan
Summary: The most beautiful of melodies becomes one of the most precious gifts a pair of lovers will ever receive in their lives. It isn't easy, but in order to receive the music they've created together, they have to go through a lot of ups and downs.In simpler terms, Shuichi and Kaede made a baby and had a wild (but amazing) nine months to get to meet them.





	1. Chapter 1

_one_.

The water in the shower had originally been turned on because she’d intended on getting in to clear her head, but Kaede had found herself getting distracted by the thing on her mind and had forgotten almost entirely about why she’d originally entered the bathroom. The lingering tiredness in her body from having just woken up was mixing with the unusual tiredness she’d been feeling over the past couple of days, and when she’d decided she was going to shower she had done it under the impression that it was going to keep her from dwelling too much on what the problem might have been.

To be honest, she didn’t think it was much of a problem at all, given that starting a family was something that she and Shuichi had talked about at great length and had decided that was in the cards for them at some point in the near future. But the key words were _at some point in the near future_ , and that didn’t mean so soon after they’d made their decision. She’d thought she’d have a while longer to kick back and enjoy the life they’d built for themselves before she had to account for anyone else in the picture. Even still, she knew that something wasn’t right with herself and she needed to put those thoughts to rest one way or the other.

It was a miracle that this happened after they’d talked about their plans, because when she’d begun to suspect that she might be pregnant it was a lot easier to bring home a bag full of tests than it would have been had they not agreed that they wanted children. At least if Shuichi had found that bag, she could have attempted to lie to him and say that it was whenever something happened in the future, not for her to use that very week. That was another nice thing about leaving the water running, she was able to rustle around in the bathroom with him on the other side of the wall and he wouldn’t know a thing about it. Of course, if she spent all that time with the water on and left completely dry, her cover would be blown without any room to defend herself, so she was going to have to decide what she was going to do and then actually shower.

But like every morning since she’d gone to the store, she was hesitating on finding the answer she was looking for. Right now, she was unaware if anything really was trying to live inside her or not, and if she did find out and there was, her whole outlook on life was going to change right then and there. She wouldn’t be able to play it off as if it was no big deal—yes, they wanted this, but so many things would have to change if she was actually pregnant, and some of those things were scary to consider. This was all super stressful and draining her already-tired mind of precious energy, so she decided that the next day would be when she’d find out either way, and she’d remain in her ignorant state.

The issue with that plan was that Shuichi knew everything about Kaede almost as well as he knew everything about himself, and he’d picked up on her unexplained tiredness as quickly as she had. He was aware of the bag of pregnancy tests hiding between the towels under their sink, and he knew that she was grappling with the possibility that they’d created a small, tender life that they’d have to protect and provide for; however, even though he knew this, he didn’t want to tell her and make it obvious that he was just as aware of what might have been going on as she was.

At the same time, keeping her on her toes right as she thought she had something hidden from him could have been a fun time, and so Shuichi had a decision to make as well. He could either let her unravel her mystery for herself and inform him after, or he could poke at her until she felt obligated to solving things right then. Laying in the bed with his phone right next to him, he opened it to the calendar and made his choice based on what day it was. Three days before his birthday, that meant that it was entirely possible that she’d keep this as a birthday surprise for him, and while he knew he could wait three days to hear one way or the other, he wasn’t sold on the idea of her being able to keep a secret that long.

She was coming to the same conclusion, knowing that if she found out then, she’d want to burst out of the bathroom and tell him right away, but there was not really much benefit in waiting other than being able to use it as a surprise if she got positive results. “Why does this have to be so difficult?” she asked herself, one foot in the shower and the other one still on dry ground. “I’m sure that anyone else would know what to do right away, but I just…don’t know what I want to do!”

Her original decision was the one she ultimately went with, and so the day went on as if nothing was wrong with her, and as if he didn’t know she was hiding something. Keeping up appearances was great when it was something they were only doing with each other, because the other was never as judgmental as the people they had to deal with in their professional lives. The music world was quick to judge about anything Kaede did that wasn’t smile and be polite, and taking an attitude with anyone and being labeled as difficult in the investigation field was never something that Shuichi wanted to face. They were great with pretending everything was okay even if it wasn’t, and in this situation that was the best way to approach one another.

The next morning came with the same struggle that the previous one had for Kaede, though, as she still felt like she was dwelling on something unnecessary and that maybe there was another explanation for her body’s sudden state of being drained. But when her phone lit up with a reminder that it was the day her cycle should have started, something she’d been dutifully been tracking since before she and Shuichi had ever once slept together, it felt almost like a betrayal that she could possibly be missing that mark for the first time in her life. A voice in her head reminded her that usually, for most women, the biggest sign of knowing they were pregnant was a missed period, but it was completely possible that she was just rushing things and that she’d be starting that afternoon or evening, and that was assurance enough to push past checking for herself once more.

Again, it was a day of pretending like nothing could potentially be amiss, and as the day went on that voice in her head was telling her to keep her cool, that everything was still okay, that there was no reason to jump to such large conclusions. Shuichi, on the other hand, was aware of what day it was (again, she’d been tracking that for so long that it was a monthly routine he knew far too well), and was noticing that she was acting exactly as she had the day before, and the one before that, and so on. As badly as he wanted to call attention to her rather normal behavior he didn’t want to let her in on the fact that he was suspecting exactly what she was. This was the one time in his life where giving in to those detective urges could ruin things for what they were, and he needed to resist until she was ready to tell him for herself.

It all came to reality the next morning when Kaede, determined to stop putting things off because now there was no hope for any other outcome in her mind, locked herself in the bathroom once more. The shower water was running, her cover-up for what she was really doing in there foolproof as always, and she had taken the bag out from where she’d hidden it between the towels, picking out two of the tests and setting them on the counter before hiding the bag once more. After reading the directions and steeling herself for what she was going to have to do, she set forth to get the answer she knew deep down was the one she was looking for. It worked out for her, as she was able to jump in and take a quick shower to make her extended stay in the bathroom look natural while the tests did their thing, and she was able to see the results once she was standing there with a towel wrapped around her body, looking over the two sticks with baited breath.

As if there was any other possibility, both of them were showing strong positives, and she exhaled slowly, quietly, trying to keep any emotional outburst at bay to prevent any suspicion. She’d known this to be true for days but now she had the proof for it, and now she had to save this to tell it to Shuichi in the best way she possibly could. There were so many choices for how she’d break the news to him that she almost distracted herself with that thought, but she couldn’t let herself get too wrapped up on how the news delivery would go when she needed to hide the evidence before he found it. Simply tossing it in the trash wasn’t the best option, but hiding the tests and their boxes at the bottom of the open-top can with a couple of wrappers obscuring them was what she chose to do. No one in their right mind was going to search the trash for evidence, not when he didn’t have much of a reason to suspect anything was in there in the first place.

This was, without a doubt, ignoring the fact that Shuichi was already leaning towards the certainty of her being pregnant without her saying a thing to him, but she’d had so much on her mind as it was that her ignoring him picking up on little hints made sense. She had been correct that he wasn’t going to dig through the trash to see what she was hiding, but he took notice of the carefully-laid wrappers on top of the boxes he could somewhat see, knowing that there were far too many wrappers there for the ruse to be convincing. That was the final push for making him come to his conclusion, and yet he didn’t want to say a word about it to her. This was Kaede’s news to announce, he wasn’t going to ruin her moment by trying to pry it from her because he’d solved things already.

True to what he’d figured when he was originally looking at the calendar, she waited until the following day, his birthday, to tell him what was going on. The decision to do that might have been less because of what day it was and more because she couldn’t keep the secret to herself too long without spoiling it accidentally, or perhaps it was because she was fearful she’d be offered a celebratory drink as they were sitting around at home and have to turn it down without explanation, but she spent most of the day while she was home alone sitting at her piano, thinking about how she was going to tell him.

He was barely inside the front door after work that day when she was there in front of him, her hands clasped excitedly in front of her chest. “You look like you have something to say to me,” he remarked, hoping that she took that as him making a comment about what day it was, not that he was positive he knew what she was going to tell him.

“You might be right about that,” she replied, her eyes closing slightly due to how big she was grinning at him. There was a moment’s pause as she thought first about how everything was about to be different, then second about her line delivery one last time before choosing to go for it anyway: “Happy birthday, you’re going to be a dad.”

_two._

Life wasn’t going to change overnight for them, nor was it going to be changing anytime soon, but the pressure was there that things did need to start changing now that they both knew what was going on. It was far too early to let anyone outside of their marriage know that they were expecting, but it was almost as hard to keep it secret from their friends as it had been to keep it secret from each other. Once she knew she had her husband’s support, Kaede made it a point to schedule appointments so that he could be there alongside her for every step of their journey, aside from the first one that she felt rather rushed into planning in order to get the rest set up, at the insistence of the clinic she’d found. That first appointment didn’t seem like anything important, and it was just to go in and get a proper blood test done to make absolute sure that they weren’t jumping to any false conclusions.

That allowed for her to have a second, more thought-out announcement after she got those results back, because being able to show him a paper that said, without a doubt, that she was pregnant seemed to be more impactful than a two-in-one statement like she’d given him the first time. “So this is what you went and did today?” Shuichi asked as he was handed the paper, the writing on it barely legible but acceptable because the information was all stuff he knew. “I wasn’t aware you were going anywhere, why didn’t you tell me?”

“It was done in such a rush that I didn’t think you’d mind missing out on it. Nothing exciting happened, except…” Her fingers fidgeting as she thought of how to tell him what this had allowed for her to do, Kaede glanced at the paper for a moment before looking up to Shuichi’s eyes, hoping he’d meet hers as she spoke. “I have a day that you need to make sure you don’t have to work on. You have to be there the first time we see the little one, don’t you think?”

Something deep inside of Shuichi’s core began to flutter at that idea, and it took him a moment to recognize it as being a feeling of excitement that came with this whole parenting thing. “Yes, of course, what kind of person would I be to not want to be there? Just tell me when and I’ll have my schedule cleared, I promise.”

It was when he did as she’d hoped and looked up at her, locking eyes with her as she seemed to grow only more excited to share what news she had. The date wasn’t anything special, but it was a few weeks away, which meant that until then (at least) they couldn’t say a word of what was going on in their lives. “I know it feels really far off, but we have to go back at eight weeks and that should…be about eight weeks,” she said, her fingers now moving to fidgeting with a loose strand of bangs that hung in her face. “Don’t worry, I was confused about how that works at first, but the staff at the clinic made sure to explain it.”

“That was nice of them,” he replied, trying not to fall into the trap of watching her hands play with her hair while he was trying to admire her shining pink eyes. “I already knew about how you determine that sort of thing, working some of the cases I have taught me a thing or two about hiding pregnancies and all that.”

Her eyes immediately dimmed as she realized what he’d said meant for her big surprise before, but she wasn’t going to let him know she was a bit bummed he’d most likely figured it out before she’d told him. “You could have taught me so I knew walking in there what to expect them to say! I thought they’d count weeks from when we, you know, made the baby, not some weird amount of time before that!”

“I didn’t think it would be relevant, sorry.” Shuichi knew that apologizing for not telling her something wasn’t necessary, as he really hadn’t had a clue she’d need to know that specific information, or even that she was going to talk to a doctor in the first place. “But now you know for when someone else needs it explained to them, and I’m sure you’ll have to do that explaining a lot in the coming months.”

It was right then that it hit them both that this was something they were going to have to tell their friends about, and field any and all questions about when they did. Suddenly, those few weeks between then and the eight-week appointment felt a lot shorter than they really were, because after that day, they’d be able to have proof of the child they’d made to show off to their friends. Their eyes were still locked with each other, and from their held gaze it was clear that neither of them were exactly looking forward to have to admit to what they’d done to everyone they knew, whether it be because of how many times they’d have to say it or because they knew what kinds of jokes and comments would be coming.

Right now, they needed to take things one step at a time. Life hadn’t completely changed for them yet, although that change was coming faster than they’d expect, and they needed to savor all the time they had where things were the same before it went wildly off the rails.

 _three_.

Getting through those next few weeks was relatively easy, the only struggle that they faced being that suddenly out of nowhere during that second week, Kaede went from just being tired all the time to being tired and spontaneously sick whenever she felt like it. It became a miracle for her to make it halfway through the day without feeling so miserable that she needed to go lay in bed, on the couch, or on the bathroom floor, but if she could power through those bouts of illness to maintain her rigorous piano practice schedule, then Shuichi could manage to get through his day without worrying too much about how his dearest wife was doing. She was strong, and he respected that, but even with recognizing her strength it was hard to push all worries from his mind and go on with his day.

On the day of the fateful appointment, he woke up like usual and found that she was already out of bed, something strange given how she’d really enjoyed her lounging around time as of late. He hurried to get himself up and ready for the day, in case he found he needed to go somewhere for Kaede’s sake, and then set off searching their small house for wherever she had gotten off to. Thankfully, it took as little as opening the bedroom door to find her, because she was standing right outside, her phone in her hand and already dressed like she was about to leave. “Kaede, what are you doing?” he asked, surprised to see her right there as she was. “Is everything okay? Do we need to—”

“Yes, everything’s fine! I just, uh, couldn’t stop thinking about doing something to mark how important today is,” she said, pulling her phone closer to herself. “I figured that you’d find what I’m doing is kind of silly so I didn’t want to ask you to help me, so I was using the mirror on the back of the door to help instead.”

While that didn’t clear anything up for him, at least Shuichi didn’t need to worry that something was wrong with her right then. “I don’t think I’ll find anything silly, you just say what you need and I’ll try my best to help you with it.” He could see her hand tightening around her phone, as if she was trying to keep whatever was on it hidden from him, but after he repeated that he was there to help she loosened her grip before holding her phone out to him. Taking it into his own hands gently, he turned the screen on to see that she had a bunch of shoddily-taken mirror selfies up in her gallery. “Why are you taking pictures of yourself? If it’s because you’re worried about not being beautiful or something after this, I’m going to have to have a stern talk with you.”

She laughed, hanging her head for a moment before letting it perk back up, a peaceful smile on her face. “I wanted to mark how I look on this super important day, that’s all. I’ve heard a lot of women do that, they take pictures every week while they’re pregnant to look back on, and I thought that…you know, it would be a nice memory to have.” Now that he knew what she was talking about, he understood why she thought he’d think it was silly, but he honestly thought it was adorable how much she wanted to document what they were going through, week by week.

That was how, after talking about it a little more, they decided that what Kaede wanted to do was completely plausible but they needed to set up for it a bit more before they began doing it. Since it was the day that they’d been waiting for to tell everyone their news anyway, it only made sense to make that first picture the big reveal, and because this was something she wanted to stick with it made even more sense if they had some way to take consistent pictures. The full setting up for that would have to wait until after the appointment, though, because if they were to have started working on it right then it was completely possible they would have lost track of time and forgotten to go.

When the time came to head over to the clinic, Kaede was the one who took the lead, as she’d been there before and knew exactly where she was supposed to go. Shuichi enjoyed when he was being told what to do and where he needed to go, but all chances of this being somewhat attractive were squashed when he remembered why, exactly, it was that they were having to do this in the first place. They’d been in such a loving and physical relationship for so long that the chance of something going amiss had always been something to be concerned about, but when they’d had their talk about what their life goals were and decided that children were something they felt were in the cards for them, the chance of conceiving a child wasn’t so much a concern as it was a possibility. It still wasn’t totally planned for, and it was going to take some time to fully accept that this was happening, but now that they were going to get to see their child for the first time, it felt all the more real to him, if not to both of them.

No one had prepared either of them for the fact that the “child” they were going to see was nothing more than a blob-like figure on a screen, nothing really denoting that it was a human baby except for where it was located. The visual might have been a bit of a letdown, but hearing a faint heartbeat, the life-sustaining sound that proved it was alive, was something that both of them were sure they’d never forget. That was their baby’s heart, beating quickly inside its mother, proof that someday in the relatively near future they’d be parents to something currently so un-humanlike.

“I can’t believe that it’s actually real,” Kaede mumbled as she looked at the screen, seeing the image move slightly as she herself was moving to talk. “That’s so crazy, don’t you think, Shuichi? That right there’s _our_ baby.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of crazy,” he agreed, his eyes shifting from the screen to look at Kaede’s enamored expression. “I don’t really know how you’re holding yourself together right now. Doesn’t that scare you, seeing it on screen and knowing what’s going to happen?”

She closed her lips together for a moment before shaking her head. “Nope, I’m not scared about what’s going to happen. With you by my side, I know that I’ll be able to get through everything, and once we’re done we’ll have someone new to love in our life.” She was reaching for his hand, and he took hers in both of his, clasping down tightly on it, not even minding that he could feel her wedding ring digging into his skin. This was what they’d decided they wanted with their lives, and now they were committed to it.

 _four_.

Making the announcement for everyone was much more stressful than seeing the baby had been, because after leaving the clinic with a printout of a couple pictures as well as a list of the next couple of appointments they needed to go to, they had to go to the store to get everything they felt was necessary to make a solid announcement. That wouldn’t have been so bad except for the fact that, on the ride over, Kaede started feeling completely miserable and nearly threw up in the car a couple of times. She was insistent they take care of what they were out to do before they went home, though, and so their trip through the craft store was fast and without much thinking about what to do.

While Shuichi was grabbing things that they needed, she was pulling up inspirational images from online and using them as springboards for what else they needed. They decided on doing a chalkboard to write information on, since that seemed to be what was popular, but on the edges, rather than write the reason in chalk or paint, they decided to use wooden letters, which were supposed to be hot glued onto the chalkboard’s frame. It was only after they’d actually gotten home that both of them realized that they didn’t actually have any chalk or a hot glue gun to use for their crafting, and that meant that Shuichi had to go back and find what they’d forgotten to get, just to go home to see Kaede fast asleep on the floor, the board and the wood letters arranged in a way that he had to admit was adorable.

Rather than disturb her, he decided that he’d just go ahead and keep working on the project for himself, and then once she was awake they could finish it and get the picture taken. He wasn’t sure what they were going to write on the board, but he figured that Kaede had some kind of idea to fill the space; because all he was doing was gluing the letters to the edge of the board he really didn’t need too much more direction than what she’d left out for him. After a lot of hot glue strands getting everywhere and a couple close calls with burning his fingertips, he considered the gluing over and propped the sign up, admiring his handiwork. On the top he’d glued the letters to spell baby, and at the bottom it spelled out their last name, meaning that even if in the pictures people couldn’t see what was written in chalk, they could see that it was about Baby Saihara, which the mere concept of was making him incredibly nervous to have to publicly acknowledge.

This was cute and all, but how were their friends going to take finding out this way, rather than by personal message or even a face-to-face conversation? If Kaede knew about his apprehension she might have reconsidered making this the official announcement, but she was still asleep and once she woke up there wasn’t going to be time to change her mind on what they were going to do. He had to believe that they’d made the right choice in making this their announcement, and if someone had a problem with it then they could take it up with him some other time.

After an hour or so of her napping on the floor, Kaede woke up to the sight of her chalkboard sign resting against the wall, the letters affixed to it exactly as she’d wanted them to be. She still felt miserable, like her stomach was churning despite her not eating much at all that day, but she couldn’t help but smile when she saw what Shuichi had done to their board. “We’ll have to paint the letters once we know what the baby is,” she said, looking at the bare white wood that was currently being presented. “If we find out, I mean. I bet maybe you’d want there to be some kind of surprise in your life for once.”

“I think painting the letters would be nice, but for now they’re fine the way they are.” Shuichi was sitting nearby with a book in his lap to pass the time, just waiting for Kaede to wake up and pleasantly surprised by how quickly she was back to talking once she did. He hadn’t even thought once about the possibility of knowing, or not knowing, what the baby was before they actually met it, and now that was something else to add to his already-long list of things to think about. “What were you planning on writing on the board for this? I’ve got all different colors for you to use, I bought the biggest pack of chalk they had.”

“I’ve got a few ideas for what I can put. People seem to really like comparing babies to the size of fruit on these things, and eight weeks seems to be a grape, so maybe I can write that on there? And the fact that we saw it for the first time today, and heard its heartbeat, and…” Kaede’s voice faded as she looked towards the couple of sonograms they’d been given. “We can put those on there too. No one would be able to see what the baby looks like, but it’s the thought that counts.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” He closed his book and got himself up off the floor, watching as she brought herself to sitting, only to scoot herself closer to the board and move it to where she could do with it as she pleased. Finding himself staring and watching for a few minutes as she got to work, he had to shake his head to clear his mind and go find something else to do while she worked. It felt like an appropriate time to make something for them to eat, even though he knew there wasn’t going to be much Kaede would want right then, so that was what he set off to do.

By the time he’d finished heating up a frozen meal they could share if she wanted any part of it, she was setting the board back up against the wall, proudly smiling at it. As he walked out to meet her in their small living space, the food in hand, she tilted her head back to look at him and grimaced when she smelled that he’d brought something with him. “Can you possibly go eat that somewhere not near me?” she asked, seeing him turn mid-step and go back into the kitchen. “Sorry, Shuichi! I just can’t stand the smell of that right now!”

“It’s okay, just means I don’t know what you’ll be eating tonight,” he replied, lamenting the fact that he’d be wasting half a meal now that he knew she wasn’t going to be eating. “But I’m sure you’ll handle that whenever you want to eat, right?”

Food was the furthest thing from Kaede’s mind at that moment but she wasn’t going to say that to him and accidentally cause him to worry about her. “Of course, I’ll find something that sounds good when I’m ready for it!” Now she had to wait for him to finish so that they could get this announcement taken care of, and then she’d have a whole week to figure out what she’d be doing with the board next. From what she’d seen online, there were many ways she could handle preparing it, she’d just have to decide what she was doing and stick to it week in and week out.

After what felt like a lot longer than it really was, mostly because she’d gotten fixated on looking up different lists she could refer to for ideas on her board, Shuichi was back in the room with her with no food on his person, ready to get things over with. “We need some good lighting so people might be able to read the words you wrote,” he said, turning on a lamp in the room that they never used, just to illuminate the board in particular. “And then, er, what are you planning on doing in the picture?”

Scrambling to her feet, Kaede struck a somewhat sassy pose and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I’m going to be myself, obviously. I don’t want to do anything unusual right now, I think the fact that this is happening at all should be weird enough when people see it. Wouldn’t you agree, Shuichi?”

“I suppose I would, now that I think about it.” Normally the pictures that got shared of Kaede were her with her piano, or her doing piano-related things, so anything outside of that normal topic was going to be given a second glance anyway. “Go ahead and get into place and we’ll see how it ends up looking, I really hope we can make this work out quickly and know for next week what we’ll need to do.”

She stopped posing and handed her phone over to him, giving him a sheepish smile when he saw all the baby-related lists on her screen at that moment. “I got excited planning for what I’m going to do next, sorry,” she apologized, before taking up a more casual pose than the one she’d had before, getting in close to the board and waiting to be told that the picture had been taken so she could drop the pose and go on with her day. She stood there for a while, Shuichi not moving even slightly where he was supposed to be taking the picture, and it took her calling him out on it to get him to say sorry, to tell her that he’d started looking at those lists, and then to properly get to taking the picture.

That wasn’t even the end of their adventure, though, as once they had the picture finished it came time to decide what to do with it. The only social media they shared and actively used between the two of them were a couple of professional pages that related back to their work lives, so those weren’t an option, unless they wanted everyone they’d recently crossed paths with knowing that they were growing their family. There was the choice of sending it to everyone that they knew and waiting for all their reactions, but that was a lot of single messages that would have to be sent out and it would become a bit much to take care of, especially if people didn’t get the message right away. They’d be dealing with responses for days in that case, and neither of them wanted to have to feel obligated to keep checking their phones for more congratulatory messages.

Since, in order to have those professional pages, they did have to have a “personal” account to moderate from, they decided that posting the picture, and all subsequent ones, on there would have to do. It was a shared account, despite being under Kaede’s name, and it had just a few friends who had access to see its posts, but they felt like that was enough to start. Anyone else who wouldn’t be able to get it from there could get it sent to them individually later, this was just a way for them to get the news out there to some extent, even if it wasn’t perfect. There wasn’t even any text attached to the image, just the image upload itself, the first activity from the account itself since they’d posted some of their wedding pictures over a year beforehand.

Yet, within thirty seconds the picture already had several reactions and a couple of shares, expanding the range their little announcement was going to have. If they were trying to keep this baby thing somewhat under the radar, there was zero chance of that happening anymore, and now that people knew there was no way they’d get to live it down again.

That became far too obvious when a phone started to ring and the familiar number the call was coming from struck fear in both their hearts. “What do you mean you’ve known for almost a month and just now decided to tell the rest of us?” The phone had been put on speaker from the moment the call had been answered, Shuichi not wanting to have his eardrum ruptured by the potential yelling he’d be receiving from the other side. “Not just that, but you guys told us that way, not by just calling us up and telling us, or coming over here and doing it in person. What, did you think we’d bite or something if you tried?”

“No, Kaito, that’s not what it is at all,” he replied, watching Kaede trying to keep a straight face from across the room where she was sitting on her piano bench, picking at the bowl of cereal she’d made for herself to try and eat. “It’s been a wild few weeks around here with us accepting what’s going on, we didn’t want to tell anyone until we had some way to prove it. Now that we’ve seen the little one for ourselves, it felt right to tell everyone about them.”

“I still think you should’ve told me and Maki Roll about it before you posted it out for the world to see. We’ve done everything else together, why should this be different?” There was a hint of annoyance in Kaito’s voice with that question, something that struck Shuichi as strange because of what he was saying it in reference to. “I mean, I get it, you want to get to do something on your own for once, and I don’t blame ya on this one, but seriously? Not even a warning that you were about to drop this news on us?” His voice became muffled for a moment as someone on his side of the phone started saying something and he was focused on talking them, giving Shuichi a chance to shake his head and see Kaede break into quiet laughter at the reaction they were receiving. “Okay, Maki says that I’m bein’ a bit too hard on you both right now, and that she—no, I’m not saying that for you, I don’t agree with it!”

“Thank you for not letting Kaito know about this sooner, I’d rather be dead than in Kaede’s position right now,” Maki said, clearly having wrangled the phone out of Kaito’s grasp so she could speak. “You know how he’d want us to copy you if he’d known sooner.”

“There’s still plenty of time to copy them, you’re just being difficult!” he called out, before what was audibly a smack rang through the phone’s speaker, only for the line to go silent. Now Kaede was really laughing hard, nearly spilling her bowl on the floor, and Shuichi was staring stunned at the phone for a moment before quietly ending the call and pretending like it hadn’t happened.

“That went well, I’d say,” he remarked after a couple of moments just listening to Kaede’s amused laughter and trying his best not to join her. “I know that Kaito will come around to this eventually, but he has to understand we weren’t keeping this from him because we didn’t want him to know. It just wasn’t the right time to say anything before now.”

Collecting herself and setting her bowl on the bench next to her so that she couldn’t cause it to spill if she started laughing again, Kaede took a deep breath, let out another giggle, and then went right into responding to what Shuichi had said. “He’ll come around, but that might mean he’s going to c—”

“Please don’t say that.” His abruptness in cutting her off was enough to get Kaede laughing again, while he was left sitting there almost stunned at the fact that she’d just attempted to say what she was thinking. It had crossed his mind a couple times that when Kaito found out about this, he might react a bit brashly or even stupidly, but he hadn’t once thought that he’d be so desperate to match them step-for-step that he’d try to have a child right there on the spot. “Kaito might be a bit dense at times, but he wouldn’t _do_ that because of us.”

“I mean, you’re probably right, but what if you’re not?” Once again she was trying to collect herself, but it was hard given how absurd what they were talking about was. Kaede wasn’t exactly positive that she could trust in Shuichi’s belief, not if they were strictly talking about Kaito and what he wanted. “What if he somehow convinces Maki to, you know, go along with his plans to match us?”

“He won’t, we have to believe in her that she wouldn’t allow it, and that’s thinking that he really would want to raise a kid right now.” What he’d just said hit him a lot harder than he expected it to, because while he could be sure that Kaito might not want anything to do with the actual raising of a child at the moment, they didn’t have a choice about it because that was something happening to them. He still had the opportunity to wait (and that waiting could last a lifetime, if Maki’s statement about wanting to die was genuine), whereas their time for waiting had an expiration date. No, he couldn’t think of it like that, it wasn’t that their freedom was expiring because of their baby, but maybe that was how he’d have to portray it if perhaps his belief in his friend’s actions was misplaced.

Kaede had mostly stopped laughing, and was now sitting on her piano bench with her hands folded in her lap, the occasional giggle still getting out but nothing as bad as it had been before. “I’d be okay if they did make that choice, but I don’t think it’s the best choice for them,” she admitted, her eyes shifting towards the floor as she spoke. “I think it would be fun to have a friend who’s pregnant right now too, but I wouldn’t want it to be Maki, even if that would mean our kids could be instant best friends.”

“Yes, let’s…not bring that possibility up anywhere near Kaito, in case he decides he wants to grant you that wish.” Shuichi knew that if Kaito were to hear that idea, he’d want to make it reality in a heartbeat, and that did not sit well with him. “I’m going to have to talk him down from wanting to try doing that anyway, I’m sure, so let’s just go light on the family talk around him until he’s accepting that we’re doing something without him.”

“Like that worked so well for getting married,” she replied, unfolding her hands so that she could look at her wedding ring, before turning her eyes up towards Shuichi. “Remember? We tried keeping when the big day was hidden from him as long as possible so he couldn’t feel like he needed to copy us and then he tried it anyway?”

“You’re right, but he understood that us sharing a wedding day wasn’t a good idea and respected at least that much of it.” Their relationship’s history was far too entangled in the history between Kaito and Maki to really separate them from each other up until this baby announcement, so once again the pendulum was swinging in favor of Kaito potentially trying to make a bad decision. There was only one way Shuichi could be certain that nothing would happen, and that required trying to call back that number and talking something out like a grown man would.

That was not a confrontation he really wanted to have to deal with right then, and so he chose to put all his faith in his friends’ good decision making and leave it where it was for the night. There’d be more time to discuss everything with them later, and the biggest choice that needed to be made that night was _not_ one of his own, so it only made sense to let things go and spend the evening basking in the more positive responses to what they’d shared.

_five._

No one could have ever prepared them for the amount of care people would have in their personal lives now that they were expectant parents, but it was rather easy to block out everyone when needed. All it would take was Shuichi saying something about how all of the attention was draining on Kaede, or her making a comment about how she felt unwell and didn’t have the energy to keep talking, and most people would back off and give them the space they needed. That explicitly excluded some of their close friends, who knew the couple well enough to understand that they were using an avoidance tactic to get out of proper conversations with people.

Even with the attempts to get away from interactions, they were usually okay with the people they were closest to coming by and hanging out with them, or inviting them out to do something for a little bit. It had been necessary to talk Kaito down from the metaphorical ledge of making a life-changing decision, but after he’d come to his senses about how rushing into something just because his friends had, he was easily the most common person to show up unannounced at the front door, ready to talk anyone’s ear off about how excited he was to get to meet his so-called sidekick’s child.

Usually it was Kaede there to answer his need for gushing about how he felt, as she spent most of her free time practicing her piano or doing small things around the house, trying not to plan her schedule too full in case something came up relating to the baby. She was fine with hearing Kaito talk on and on about how happy he was for them, and how he was going to teach that kid all he could about all the things he knew, but she drew the line whenever he would attempt to touch her. “You won’t feel anything, trust me,” she told him when she would see his hands come anywhere close to her. “That’s something you’ll know about when it happens, between me and Shuichi I’m sure someone will tell you right away.”

“I don’t want to just be told about it, I want to be one of the first to feel some moving in there. Little guy’s got to know who I am before we even really meet, you know?” That was one of the few things about how Kaito had reacted to this news that grated on Kaede, his insistence that the child was a boy. Not only was it far too early for them to know what it was, but she and Shuichi were both fine with either a boy or a girl, and so hearing Kaito be so certain that it was a boy was irritating at best. “He’s going to replace his dad as my sidekick when he’s older, so we’ve got to get started on building the bond now.”

“You’ll only be allowed to feel _them_ moving if you stop talking like you know what they’re going to be already.” That was about as forceful she would get in terms of trying to get him to knock off his behavior, because causing a scene with him would end badly for them both. “I know that you want them to be a boy so you can teach them everything you know, but I think you could teach a girl some things too!”

“Sure I could, but I’d rather spend my time being cool uncle to a little Shuichi instead of a little Kaede, if you get what I’m saying.” She did, in fact, get what he was saying, and she wasn’t exactly happy with it, and if she weren’t trying to be respectful and not start any drama within their friend group that someone would have to fix, she would have most likely kicked him out (or physically kicked him) right then. For being some who’d gotten rather lucky in finding friends and love, Kaito sure didn’t know how to act at times, and this was one of his biggest flaws.

It was also a flaw that he didn’t bring up nearly as much if Shuichi was around to hear it, for some reason that Kaede couldn’t quite figure out. That wasn’t to say that he didn’t make specific reference to wanting the baby to be a boy in Shuichi’s presence, but when he did it wasn’t nearly as confident as it was when he was solely around Kaede. “We just have to accept that he’s excited in his own way, even if it’s a bit strange,” Shuichi told her after they sent Kaito on his way one evening, him leaving the house with a declaration that he’d be back the following day to see if maybe then he’d be able to start bonding with the baby. “I’m not going to let it bother me too much, you should consider doing the same.”

“Yes, but…” Kaede puffed her cheeks out in indignance for a moment, before exhaling the held breath and grumbling, “I don’t like that he thinks they have to be a boy for him to get to teach them things. He can teach them either way, but he refuses to actually listen to me about that. What, does he think that girls can’t do ‘cool’ things? Does he pay attention to what Maki does for a living?”

“He does, and he knows that girls can do exactly what boys can. You know why he wants the baby to be a boy so badly, though.” Shuichi did not like that Kaede was so bothered by this, even though it irritated him as well, but he knew that there was little he’d be able to do about getting Kaito to stop thinking in his current mindset. “He’s looking forward to being able to drop by when I’m not here and have someone like me here anyway.”

“His mini-sidekick, or a little Shuichi, or whatever he wants to call it that day, I know. I’m just saying that he will be just as happy with a little girl if he lets himself.” It hadn’t even been two full weeks since they’d let everyone find out and she was already more over their most persistent visitor than she thought she would be. She wasn’t quite ten weeks into this endeavor and she had no idea how she was going to survive the next thirty or so weeks of social interaction with someone who was driving her to her wit’s end.

Dealing with Kaito was almost able to be considered practice for dealing with the child down the road, and that was a testament to his complete boneheaded-ness.

 _six_.

One of the greatest disappointments about the timing of everything was that, when Halloween around, there was absolutely no way someone could look at Kaede and guess that she was pregnant. If anything, someone would assume that she had been working out or dieting, given that she’d barely been eating much and predictably had actually lost weight compared to what someone would have expected. That was a bit bothersome to her, because she’d become incredibly fixated on looking up cute things that pregnant ladies could do for costumes and she wouldn’t be able to pull any of them off.

“I just wanted to have something funny and adorable for this week’s picture,” she told Shuichi as she sat cross-legged on the floor, erasing and replacing what was to be on the chalkboard for the week. “I mean, I guess there’s still plenty I can do for it, but people have some really fun ideas that I’m jealous we can’t do. There’s not a couples costume out there that’s meant for someone who looks as thin as a rail and swears she’s pregnant, I’ve already checked all sorts of places for one.”

“Something tells me that you would be just as upset if you could do one of those costumes,” he replied, watching her carefully write the different details that she felt were necessary for showing on the board. “Besides, maybe it’s for the best that you can’t dress up like you want to? We’re not doing anything tonight, we have somewhere to be in the morning.”

She froze, her hand stopped mid-letter. “I know that, Shuichi. I’m the one who scheduled the appointment. I’m just saying, if I could dress up I’d do it for the picture and only for the picture.” That was when she returned to writing, and he was left staring at her, not sure what he could say to get her to see the bright side to the situation. Sure, she wanted to be able to wear a quirky costume like the ones she kept seeing, but if she were able to do that then she’d most definitely be at a stage where she’d be more uncomfortable with everything, and he was pretty sure she didn’t want to be there yet. He was already dreading the first time she realized that she was starting to get bigger, and he knew that she wasn’t going to be so happy about it once she got there.

“I think I have an idea for what you can do for a costume,” he abruptly said, snapping himself out of his worries with what he wasn’t even sure was a good idea, but one that Kaede could use hearing. “We’ve got a bunch of chalk, and I think that I—no, I _know_ that I’ve got an extra black shirt we can use. How about we make you a mini chalkboard as a costume, and you can write some of your stuff on the shirt? It’s not much, but it’s something.”

“If you think it’s worth it, I’m willing to give it a shot.” Sitting up tall, as opposed to hunched over the chalkboard where it was laying, Kaede turned to look back at Shuichi right as he got up to go find the shirt in question. “I think we could maybe even make it really look like the board if we tried, we’d just have to get creative with it.”

“Something tells me you getting creative isn’t going to be an issue,” he said with a laugh, before heading to their bedroom to find a spare shirt to sacrifice to the crafting gods. It wasn’t hard for him to find what he was looking for, given that most of his casual outfits consisted of black shirts and he could always replace one easily, but when he went back out to the living room he found that Kaede wasn’t on the floor anymore, but rather at her piano, hands stretched out over the keys as she mimed playing. “Er, sweetheart? What happened to being creative?”

She shrugged, letting a couple fingers hit keys to fill the room with long notes. “I don’t know, I just decided I wanted to practice playing for a bit. You wouldn’t mind making the shirt for me, would you?”

“Not at all, I can handle it.” The idea of sitting on the floor to work on the shirt didn’t seem appealing to him, so he grabbed the chalk and sat both it and the shirt down on their kitchen table so he could work there. Meanwhile, Kaede’s held notes had changed and she was now pressing down on a different set of keys. Once he’d properly started working, she began playing some scales, not exactly the best sound to work to but he wasn’t going to ask her to play a proper song right then. Something was bothering her, and if it turned out she was so worked up over not being able to wear a specific costume that she had given up on what they’d compromised, he’d be disappointed in her but understanding that right at that moment, she might not have had the best grasp on how she was feeling.

All of that changed once he was mostly finished with the outline of the board on the shirt, making it match as best as he could with the actual board on the floor. His lettering was shaky at best, but he was trying his hardest to make it readable and there was something unnerving about the scales that Kaede kept playing over and over. She wasn’t going to enjoy seeing the shirt, she was going to lose her mind because it wasn’t what she wanted, and he’d have to deal with his emotionally-compromised wife rather than have some happy picture for them to share alongside the previous weeks’ ones. He was in the process of getting the last letters drawn on when the music stopped and he heard her get up and come closer to him, but he was more focused on what he was doing than what she was.

“Shuichi, next week I’m going to have you write on the board, that’s so perfect,” she softly said as she came up behind him, draping herself over his shoulders and nearly causing him to lose his focus on his craft. “Everyone’s going to be jealous of my cute costume when they see this, and you’re the one to credit for it.”

“Uh, thanks, Kaede, but it wasn’t too much work and was mostly copying what we’d already done. Besides, you’ll have to fill in whatever you want in the blank area, to match what you have on the real thing.” He was smiling at the praise, but at the same time, there was a sadness to Kaede’s voice that he wanted to address but didn’t have the words to do so. It was something he’d just have to push to the back of his mind for the moment, especially when there was something much more pressing to attend to. She had taken the shirt and the chalk and was doing exactly as he’d said she needed to do, or at least, that’s what he thought she was doing. Instead, she’d begun drawing something in the open space on the shirt, and whatever it was, she needed to keep referring to her phone to make it work.

Rather than hover over her, he decided he’d go back to the other side of the room and hang the sign up for the picture, using the little hanger he’d put on the wall before their first time doing this. As he was hanging it up, he properly read what she’d written on it, to perhaps take a guess as to what she was doing to the shirt, but there were so many possibilities that he couldn’t just pick one. He was rather partial to the message at the bottom of the board about how much they loved the little baby, despite not having known them for very long, and he somewhat hoped that her shirt was going to talk about how loved they were.

Instead, what he was greeted with once she changed into the shirt was a rather misshapen attempt at drawing a lime, the only way he knew that being the bright color and the fact that the board itself said that the baby was roughly that side that week. “I tried my best, but I don’t think it worked out very well,” she said, that sadness still prominent in her voice. “You’re not upset that I ruined your hard work, are you?”

He shook his head, his whole body aching to know what was bothering her so much. “Trust me, I wouldn’t be upset when you drew that lime better than I could ever dream of. Come on, let’s get this picture done and move on with our night.” While he didn’t know what was bothering her, he could tell that once they’d taken care of the picture and sent it on its way, she seemed to be cheering up a bit, even if she didn’t want to acknowledge that anything had been wrong to start. This picture idea had seemed so cute, but if it was going to bother her this badly when things weren’t going her way, perhaps it would be best to retire it.

_seven._

“I want to make music to this sound.” They were at their appointment the morning after Halloween, and after a quick check-in they’d been escorted back to the exam room, where Kaede had been instructed to lay flat on the table with her stomach exposed so that the technician could use the fetal heartbeat monitor to try and pick up the sound for them. She’d initially been uncomfortable at the feeling of the gel that had been put down to help with the machine, but once the sound of the beating heart filled the air everything changed, and that was when she’d said those words. “Think about it, the sound of a song inspired by a baby’s heartbeat, wouldn’t that be nice?”

“You do enjoy music based on that sort of thing, so I agree, it would be nice.” Too many times had he heard her compare his own heartbeat to music, so it was only natural that she was doing that with their child’s already. “I just don’t know how you’d make it happen when we can’t exactly hear it all the time right now.”

There was a shine in Kaede’s eyes when she heard that proposed challenge to her idea, but it was the technician who explained it on her behalf. The prospect of buying their own home version of the machine to use whenever they wanted was a lot to take in, because it would take away from the powerfulness of hearing the heartbeat at appointments, but at the same time it would allow for Kaede to use the sound as inspiration for music. It wasn’t a discussion they were going to have right then, not when the technician was doing their job and trying to move the appointment along, but rather it was something to save for later, on the way home afterward.

Yet on their way home that was furthest from the topic of discussion, as they’d been told something rather important as they were getting ready to leave the clinic. It wasn’t anything bad, but rather something that neither of them had realized was coming up so quickly, even with all of the research that one of them had done about things. “What do we do about the next appointment?” Shuichi asked, hoping that talking about that would eventually lead them to the music thing that they needed to discuss. “I know we’ve brought it up before, but I’d be fine, surprise or no surprise. Whatever you want.”

“I knew you’d say that, and I…think I want to have it be a surprise for a little bit. A lot of people have cute reveal parties but that seems like a bunch of work.” Kaede was looking at something on her phone, her free hand grasping part of the end of her shirt and holding it tightly. “I was thinking, maybe we could have them give us the information some way that we wouldn’t see it, then we could hand it off to, uh, Maki, maybe? She’d keep it secret until we wanted to know, I think.”

“You’re right about that, Maki wouldn’t tell a soul until we were ready to hear it.” Curious about what Kaede was looking at, Shuichi had to remind himself not to pry into her business and to let her talk whenever she was ready. She wasn’t nearly as sad as she’d been the night before, but he could tell that something was still not right about her emotional state. “That’s something to look forward to, just like so much else about this.”

She nodded, before setting down her phone and turning it over in her lap. “I’ll ask her about it next time I talk to her, I’m sure she’ll be down for keeping it secret from us and from Kaito. Especially from him, since he, well, you know what he keeps doing.”

“That still bothering you, huh?” If that was what was upsetting her the night before, it would make sense—Kaito was usually one of the first people to react to their weekly updates and he hadn’t stopped with his insistence that the child was going to be a boy, for his own selfish reasons. But she had been upset before he’d had the chance to say anything, so that might not have been the reason after all. “He’ll know soon enough whether those comments are allowed or not, and he’ll stop them if they’re not. I believe in him to learn to handle this better, even if it’s slow going right now.”

“I just…how would he like it if he and Maki were having a baby and I kept referring to it as a girl, which I know would bother him? Do you think he’d be as forgiving as I’ve had to be about him doing this to me?” It was clear that Kaede was getting worked up about this, and Shuichi did not want her to start getting emotional because of someone not quite understanding that their personal desire was hurtful to others. “I want him to learn that right now, I don’t want anyone thinking about if my baby’s a boy or a girl, I want them knowing they’re healthy and that’s all that matters!”

“H-hey, let’s not get so worked up about this, Kaito isn’t worth the energy. He’ll learn in time, let’s think about something better for you. Like, what about the idea of making a song to the heartbeat, huh?” It wasn’t how he wanted that to be brought up, but Shuichi didn’t feel like he had much choice in terms of topics to switch to. He needed to get Kaede to calm down, and there was usually no better option than to bring up music with her. “I’m sure we can find a reliable one of those machines for fairly cheap, if you really want it we can get one and see if you can make that music.”

“I’m a pianist, not a composer, I couldn’t really make actual music to the sound of a heartbeat, but…if you’d be willing to let me try, I’d be willing to give it a shot.” Still clearly upset about what she’d been talking about, Kaede was trying to push past it to focus on what Shuichi had brought up, yet before he had the chance to be accepting of what she’d said she was right back on their previous discussion. “I’d make it a song I could play for the baby, and probably name it after them if I did write it down, and everyone could hear it except for Kaito because he doesn’t appreciate our child, Shuichi! He just doesn’t!”

Internally, he was groaning at how she’d backtracked, but out loud all he said was, “Let’s think about the music and not anything that our friend might have done. I’ll have a long talk with him about how to be respectful towards you and the baby, as if it’ll do anything but I’ll try it for you.”

“You’re the sweetest, I hope you know.” Just like that, Kaede seemed over the whole issue, and for the whole rest of the day he didn’t see a hint of the sadness that had plagued her the day before. He wasn’t sure if it was really about Kaito, or if it was just something she couldn’t explain and had turned into that, but as long as it was gone that was what mattered.

_eight._

True to his offer, Shuichi spent a few days researching where he could get a fetal heartbeat machine before buying one for Kaede, something that she immediately found herself using every night without fail. Some nights she’d find a beat quickly and try to commit the tempo to memory, other nights she’d struggle to find anything at all except static, but it became a nightly thing for her to lay on her piano bench and play with her machine. She was so enamored with the process that she even wrote it on the board for thirteen weeks, right underneath the part about how they were officially into the second trimester, where things would apparently get easier.

There was just one issue about making that claim, and that was, despite everything, she still didn’t really feel like she was pregnant. Hearing the heartbeat did help to remind her that she was, as did some of the other small things that had happened in the time since she’d found out, but the biggest sign had yet to come and she was somewhat getting impatient waiting for it. “I know it’s probably really weird,” she said as she was using the machine one night, “but I kind of can’t wait until I start showing. Just the thought of running this thing over even a tiny bump seems like it’ll be so great.”

“You’re really glorifying that in your mind, if you ask me.” The memory of how she’d acted when she couldn’t wear a certain kind of costume was still fresh to Shuichi, and he honestly wondered if she’d thought for a moment about how silly it was that she was waiting for what amounted to her whole body changing dramatically. “Just wait until you’ve got that bump, then you won’t stop complaining about it, I’m certain of it.”

“Please, like that would happen! I’m so ready to look like I’m actually pregnant, rather than just having to say I am. I don’t think you can understand how I feel about this, since you’re not in my shoes.” Kaede paused, kicking her feet up from where they were dangling to show that she wasn’t even wearing shoes, just musically-patterned socks. “Look, isn’t the big thing not being able to see your feet? I can totally see mine, and until I can’t I’m considering this wrong and unfair.”

Without thinking about how he’d be taken, Shuichi looked at her and said, “And if you’re considering this wrong and unfair, I don’t want to hear you use either of those words when you _can’t_ see your feet and you hate it. You’re being unreasonable, Kaede, and I don’t think it’s going to end well for you.” The offended gasp she gave as she heard him made him immediately feel bad for what he’d said, but he didn’t want to take a word of it back. He knew that she would be changing her tune as soon as it didn’t seem fun anymore, and he didn’t want her thinking that he wasn’t going to remember that.

They went to bed that night slightly unhappy with each other, as they never quite resolved the problem that had gotten brought up, but it was nothing a good night’s sleep wasn’t going to be able to fix. Except, when he woke up the next morning, Kaede was gone and there was no explanation for where she’d gone off to, and she wasn’t hanging around somewhere in the house. He was worried, but he knew that she wouldn’t do anything she’d regret in her current position, and so he was able to go on with his morning routine and head out the door to go do some casework without even a word as to where she was. At some point that day, she did try calling him but he was in the middle of talking with a client and couldn’t answer, only fueling what was looking like a bit of a rift between them.

That changed when he got home that night to the sound of piano scales coming through the closed front door, and once he’d opened it he saw Kaede on her bench, fingers moving across the keys without even looking at them. “I went shopping with some friends this morning, sorry I didn’t tell you where I was until now,” she said, knowing who had come in the door even though she hadn’t looked there either. Whatever had her attention had grabbed it and wasn’t letting it go. “I thought about asking you if you’d go with me but then I remembered that you want me to stay like this the whole time and I thought better of it.”

“Kaede, I never once said—“

“Look, I get it, you’re not as excited about the baby as I am, and really I can’t expect you to be because you’re not the one with the baby inside you.” Her scale-playing was slowing down, her fingers holding keys longer than they previously had been. “Don’t worry, I’m not upset with you or anything like that, I just needed to go out with people who do understand what I’m feeling. Even if they don’t have kids of their own. It’s a woman thing.”

“—you’re taking everything I said out of context and making it fit your point,” he told her, bothered that he’d been cut off but not too much. “I want to see you happy, that’s all I want, and I just don’t think you’ll be that happy once you’re a bit bigger. You’re hyping this up in your head too much.”

“And maybe I am, but what’s the harm in it? I’m pregnant, Shuichi, I want to enjoy things as much as I can because I know it’s going to get hard, even with you by my side.” The room had gone silent, the music completely stopped, and she turned around on the piano bench, giving him a glimpse of her phone sitting on the music stand with what looked to be a blank staff on screen. “You’re so big on believing in people that it’s weird I have to tell you that you need to believe in me this time.”

Knowing that if he argued against her, he’d be falling headfirst into a pit of issues, Shuichi swallowed down any reservations he had and told her, only half-truthfully, that he believed in her and what she wanted. “But don’t come complaining to me if you find yourself unhappy,” he reminded her. “I tried warning you and you insisted you were right, so if you end up wrong it’s not my fault.”

“Trust me, I’m not going to be wrong about this.” She flashed him a grin and it was impossible to resist her positivity about what she wanted, and what he knew was going to end up being an issue in the future. At least for right then, she was going to be happy whenever she started looking more like the pregnant woman they both knew she was, and if that was what made her happy, he wasn’t going to deny her it. He’d begun to learn that the best way to deal with her was let her work out her problems and not cause further ones, and that was just what he was going to have to do right then.


	2. Chapter 2

_nine._

It was another morning of waking up without Kaede in the bed, something that put Shuichi’s mind at unease initially, until he heard who he could only guess was her outside the bedroom door banging on the wall. He got out of bed and went to open the door, only to find that she had locked it before she’d left. “Kaede, is everything okay out there?” he asked, turning the lock so that he could leave once he had the all-clear to do so. “Please, either way, tell me if I can leave.”

“Yes, come out, I’m not doing anything bad out here!” The fact that she had to mention that she wasn’t doing anything _bad_ struck a chord in Shuichi’s heart that he knew he needed to ignore. There was no way that she was that excited to be lying to him, and so he braced himself for whatever strange thing was waiting on the other side and slowly opened the door to see just what kind of madness Kaede had created in a short amount of time.

What he expected and what he got were two different things. He figured at worst he’d be coming face-to-face with some kind of disaster of a project she’d been inspired to create, and at best he’d see her doing absolutely nothing. What he got was the sight of Kaede standing right out of the path of the door, her shirt missing so that she was standing there in her pajama pants and a bra that had long since stopped fitting her even remotely close to properly. Knowing what was on the back of the door, he had more or less come to the conclusion of what she’d been doing without needing any explanation. “You were looking at yourself in the mirror, weren’t you?”

“Yes, I was! Look, see it for yourself!” She sounded altogether way too giddy as she turned to be facing him sideways, and it was then that he realized that there was a certain part to her that she’d been looking at. “I’m finally starting to get a tiny little baby bump! People are going to actually take me seriously about this now!”

“That is definitely what looks like a bump, yeah,” he replied, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth as he found himself staring at it, how it arched out ever-so-gently from the normal shape of her body. “You’re still not going to be able to show that off in your picture for the week, it’s going to be hidden by whatever clothes you’re wearing.”

A pout forming on her lips, Kaede went back to facing him head-on, eliminating any chance of him continuing being able to see what he’d been looking at. She put her hands on her hips and leaned forward slightly, her lack of amusement with what he’d said all-too-clear. “I’m pretty sure I’ve already thought of that before you’ve had to say anything,” she said, giving a loud _hmph_ as she saw him open his mouth to apologize. “No, you don’t need to tell me how sorry you are, or how much you didn’t mean it, I know that it’s really small and that I can’t show it through clothes, and that’s why today’s picture is going to be with my shirt up to show it off!”

“You are really insistent on proving how real this is to everyone, aren’t you?” He found her behavior amusing, even though he felt she was acting rather immature given what it was in reference to. “I’m sure everyone’s believed you even without being able to physically tell, but if you think this is necessary, I’m not going to stop you, sweetheart.”

Her eyes went wide and her face began to be overtaken with a fiery blush at his use of the petname for her. Flustered and put in a position of not knowing what to do, she stammered, “I-I mean, if you think that it’s not necessary, I can just write it on the board that I’m barely beginning to get my bump, I can always wait to really show it off once it’s bigger.”

“You’re the one whose body is in these pictures, it is entirely your choice.” That was the stance Shuichi was planning on taking for the rest of the day, so that he could avoid any further arguments on the matter, but Kaede had other plans that immediately threw that into disarray. That was, rather than wait until later in the day like they had been doing, she wanted to take the picture right away and get it done with. While that did help him with needing to dodge giving an opinion on what she should do for the whole day, it meant that up until the time the picture was posted, he had to endure her wavering on what she was going to do.

The final decision was for her to pull her shirt back as tight as she could and hope that the tiny curve was noticeable, but it was notated on the board that she _had_ seen it upon waking up that morning. No one who commented on it seemed to mind either way, seeing it or not seeing it, but there was one notable response that came via a message sent privately to Shuichi later in the day that made him hope that Kaede didn’t get it in her head to check his phone at any point.

He was certain that Maki didn’t mean anything harmful by it, but the way she made the offer to take Kaede out for core training once everything was over felt like she was being slightly judgmental about the whole situation. She wasn’t, she was being genuine because she wanted to help her friend when the time came, but he knew that if Kaede caught wind of someone already offering to help her work out after the baby was born, it would shatter her self-confidence much faster than he knew it was going to crumble.

 _ten_.

There was nothing but anxiety coursing through both of them when they went in for the next appointment, a reasonable reaction to that being the day that the doctor (not them, they’d made that decision and were sticking with it) hopefully found out what their little one was going to be. It was beyond terrifying knowing that they were either going to walk out with the results to hand off to their trustworthy secret-keeper, or that they’d leave with pictures of the baby but no real news about them to share with anyone. The first thing that got mentioned to them when they went into the office, though, was not anything to do with why they were there.

It was an innocent comment made by the lady at the reception desk, who’d been there doing check-ins every time Kaede had come in, and while they knew she meant nothing by it, her fawning over how “adorable” Kaede’s slowly-growing stomach made her look was not something they were expecting to hear. “I guess it’s really obvious now that something’s in there, isn’t it?” she quietly asked Shuichi after they’d properly checked in and had to take a seat to wait to go back to the exam room. “All that time where it looked like there was nothing, and now…”

She was beaming at him, which didn’t give him many options for what direction he was supposed to take that. “You’re really proud of this development, I know you are, but I don’t quite think it counts when you have to arch forward enough to even get it to be visible through your shirt still,” he said, earning himself a somewhat forceful backhanded smack on the arm. “It’s true, Kaede, you can admit it.”

“You know I know you’re telling the truth, but I just want to look like I fit the role right now!” As she was sitting, she was leaning back, causing her shirt to tug backwards and press against the shape of her body, exposing the still-small curve that she was so eager to show off to everyone. “We’re going to know what they are here very soon, and don’t you think it would be best if we could talk about them _and_ see them at the same time?”

“Listen to me, by the time we find out for ourselves, I’m sure it’ll be a lot more noticeable. You don’t want to rush through this, you’re going to regret acting like this someday and then there’ll be nothing we can do about it.” She was raising her arm to give him another smack, but he intercepted her hand before she could follow through. “I get that you’re playing around right now but please stop and let’s take this exactly as it’s given to us. There’s no need for forcing what’s not quite here.”

In a huff, she ceased arching her back and sat up tall, the evidence of her stomach bump entirely faded except for one tiny spot where it still touched her shirt and barely pushed it out. “I guess there’s a chance you’re right, so I’ll cool it for right now. But if we’re into next week and I still look like this—”

“Then there’s a problem that needs to be addressed, I’m sure. One day at a time, Kaede, it’s what’s best for the three of us.” Shuichi’s heart felt like it skipped a beat when he said his last few words, his eyes shooting down to that almost unnoticeable difference in his wife’s appearance. “Yeah, that would be right, it really is three of us now, huh?”

“It’s been three of us for a while,” she corrected, pulling her hand out of his from when he’d grabbed it and placing it on her stomach instead. “Not like it’s been obvious or anything, which is the exact thing I’m complaining about when I get upset you still really can’t tell! I want everyone to know that we’re having a baby, and not just by me telling them that’s what’s going on!”

Her frustration was making more sense, even though he disagreed with how she was approaching the issue, but there didn’t seem to be time to address it right then. The technician was calling for her, which meant that the time to see the baby once more was upon them, and that the news of what it was going to be was going to be within reach. Just like the lady at the desk had, the technician commented on Kaede’s appearance, although not with an opinion comment about how she looked, but rather with a look at her charts and a remark that it was right on schedule for the bump to start becoming more noticeable every day, provided that everything was normal, anyway.

That information was a bit of a blow to Kaede and her desire to look as pregnant as she thought she needed to, but it was interesting for Shuichi to hear it. He’d been present for almost everything that had been said regarding her physical state, and he didn’t recall it ever being mentioned that it would take this long and yet still be “right on schedule” in the grand scheme of things. He figured it had something to do with her prolonged inability to eat more than the bare minimum every day, something that she had just recently been able to break from. This was a theory that was backed up when the technician took all the necessary measurements and said that, unlike previous appointments, this was the first time that Kaede actually had gained any amount of weight, as opposed to losing it like she had been.

When they were left alone in the exam room, given the promise that the doctor would be right in, Shuichi expected her to start complaining about something, perhaps the revelation that she wasn’t abnormal at all despite thinking she was. Instead, he was treated to a wide-eyed and almost scared look from Kaede. “I guess I should have listened to you all along,” she admitted, her hand once again over her stomach. “I just thought that maybe something wasn’t quite right and I was missing out, but I really wasn’t. I wasn’t, and now I guess it’s just going to get worse from here.”

“Don’t think like that, it’s going to be fine the whole time. Remember what you kept saying, once you start looking like you’re pregnant, people will believe that you are.” There didn’t seem to be any way for him to comfort her that wouldn’t be warped into an “I told you so”, which made him feel like his hands were tied on the matter. “Besides, I loved you before, I love you now, and I’ll love you every step of the way, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“It’s not quite, but hearing you say that is nice anyway.” The smile she gave him was half-hearted, and he knew that something was eating at her, most likely her behavior over the past month or so. It also didn’t help that they were waiting for one of the most important events of their journey together, and it was then that he remembered how anxious he was about the rest of the appointment. If he was feeling that way, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going through Kaede’s mind, especially now that her behavior had been pointed out to her as being unnecessary.

The doctor came in a lot quicker than they expected, bringing in with her the technician, and while they got everything set up small-talk was made between patient and provider. It seemed as if Kaede was dodging answering all questions that were being asked, and she wasn’t doing much to prolong the conversation, but that changed when she was told to get into position to see the baby and she hesitated on lifting her shirt. “I’m sorry, but there’s something I have to say here,” Shuichi said, his voice shaky but after looking at Kaede and seeing the fear in her eyes he knew he had to take action. “She’s been really particular about how she looks lately, would it be possible to not make any comments about that?”

“N-no, if you want to talk about how I look, you can, it’s really okay,” she immediately replied, her breathing starting to pick up as she turned her focus to Shuichi. “I kind of like hearing what people have to say about how I look, as long as they leave the technical babble out of it. I don’t want to know how much I weigh, I just want to know that I look like I’m supposed to.”

“And that’s why you said what I said before wasn’t quite right, got it.” He knew he’d get the truth out of her eventually, but he didn’t think it would be such a quick process, nor did he expect that it would happen with two relative strangers in the room with them. At any rate, it was enough to get her to willingly lift her shirt and allow for the procedure to go on without any issues. It did take a few minutes to get a strong image of the child on the screen, time that was spent searching and raising fear that maybe something had happened, but once they saw the grayscale image of what was definitely a tiny human’s face, they knew that everything was fine the way it was, and would continue to be fine no matter what.

There was a part where the screen was turned away from them being able to see it for a moment, which they assumed was when the team was finding out the gender of the child, but other than that, they got to spend quite a bit of time looking at different parts of their baby. They got to see two hands and arms, and two feet and legs, but what they lingered on most was the outline of the face, unable to really see anything beyond the little nose that poked out of the rest of the head. Just like she had the first time she’d seen the baby, Kaede seemed to be enamored with it, repeating over and over, “That’s really ours, Shuichi. That’s _our_ little baby!”

He was just as taken aback as he’d been the first time, seeing the image on-screen and knowing that he was looking at something that belonged to him and Kaede. Unlike the last time, though, this wasn’t just staring at a vague blob and calling it a baby; this was looking at a very small, unreal being and knowing that it was really what they said it was. Just like he had the last time, especially with everything they’d talked about that day, he had one thing to say to Kaede: “I don’t really know how you’re holding yourself together right now, seeing them like this. Aren’t you, uh, worried about what’s to come?”

“I would give anything to make sure my baby’s safe and loved, Shuichi, I’m not going to give up on them. Especially not with you here with me.” That was when she grabbed his hand and held it tightly, and he didn’t let her let go until they were finishing up the appointment.

_eleven._

Saying that Maki had been willing to be the person in charge of holding onto the news until they were ready for it would be incorrect, as she had the job pushed onto her without any chance to argue against it. However, she was easily the person they knew they could trust to do the job properly and without ruining the surprise, and that was why she was okay with stepping up to help them. “It’s not even that I have to look in there and see what it says until right before you want to know, right?” she asked to clarify after being handed an envelope that had been specially-prepared during the appointment, separate from the rest of the pictures. “So I can just go on not knowing, and not really caring, until you’re ready?”

“More or less, yes,” Shuichi replied, knowing that Kaede was too distracted looking at the other pictures to be paying attention to their parking lot conversation down the street from the clinic, where the two of them were sitting in their vehicle while Maki stood outside the driver’s side window, shivering in the cold. “It’s probably for the best if you don’t find out yourself, now that I think about it. If Kaito knew you knew, he’d get it out of you and then ruin the surprise for himself, if not us as well.”

“And that’s why this is staying somewhere he won’t ever find it.” She stuck the envelope between two fingers and held it up, watching it shake as she vibrated her fingers. “He can help me come up with how to tell you two, sure, but he’s not knowing what this says until you tell him yourselves.”

“We wouldn’t want it any other way. Now you get back to work, we don’t want to keep you out doing our things for too long.” He could see her breath billowing out of her mouth like a smokestack when she was talking, and it was a miracle she hadn’t started letting her teeth chatter with how cold she looked. “We’ll tell you when we want to know, just don’t make the reveal something too, uh, dramatic.”

She stared blankly at him for the comment. “Me, dramatic? You’re acting like Kaito will get full control of the whole thing. Trust me, I know the basics of what I’ll be doing.” In typical Maki fashion, she turned and walked away from the situation before she could say anything else, but it was acceptable because of the subject matter. It would have been a disaster had she gone ahead and said what she was planning, but she was usually good about keeping things quiet until necessary, unlike her significant other who loved sharing exactly what was on his mind at any time.

Rolling up the window, Shuichi looked at Kaede right as she turned to show him what seemed to be her favorite of the pictures. “Look at them, they’re so cute!” she gushed, pushing the picture closer to him as if he hadn’t already seen it before. “I can’t believe that something this cute is _living_ inside me right now! That’s just the craziest thing to think about and I don’t know how I’m going to handle not seeing their little face again until they’re actually here.”

“I’m sure we can arrange something to see them again before that time comes, there has to be some way to make it happen.” He wasn’t actually sure if there was or not, but suggesting it seemed to give Kaede a case of kicky-feet that she couldn’t resist acting on, stomping her feet on the floor of the car a few times until she was better. “I’ll look into it for you, just because I know how much it would mean to you to make that happen.”

“Yeah, it really would mean a lot, so thanks, Shuichi.” Calming down slightly, she brought the picture back in front of her own face and sighed happily. “Sometimes I get worried that all of this isn’t really happening, but now that I can see their face I know that it totally is.”

Hearing her so content with things brought a smile to his lips, and as he started them in the direction of home all he could think of was how happy she’d be if he really did make that happen for them. If he could find somewhere that would let them see the baby again weeks down the road, that would be a perfect time for them to possibly find out their gender. Doing that would require Maki’s cooperation on giving them the information, but she’d relinquish it if she knew what was going on to spark their interest at the time. This was a thought that he’d need to do further planning and research into before he even suggested it to Kaede, in case she latched onto it and refused to allow anything different to happen.

All things considered, it was a perfect plan, even if it was one he was keeping to himself for the time being. Once he had some of the specifics worked out, he’d talk to Maki about it and see if she could work her reveal idea into it, and after that was settled he’d get Kaede involved and excited for what he was going to do. It would have been lovely if it had been able to happen exactly as he was envisioning it, but life was rude sometimes, and he knew that it would be nothing short of a miracle that everything went to the letter.

The issue that came up had nothing to do with anything he was trying to do, but rather came out of something that they’d thought they’d already handled. It was a couple days after the appointment, a couple days after Kaede had taken her eighteen-week picture in front of the board, which did have that favorite picture of hers attached to it, and a couple of days after they’d handed off the big surprise to the person meant to keep it. Those days had been spent trying to go back to a more normal life, but there was a lot happening at home now that it was getting closer to the holiday season. Shuichi had barely found time between work and trying to start doing some house-rearranging to do some preliminary searching for what he needed to find, and Kaede had barely been at the house during sunlight hours due to going to several different meetings for holiday-themed concerts she’d agreed to perform long beforehand. They just happened to both be there at the same time for an hour or so one night, and it was in that hour that someone showed up at their front door, wanting to speak with them both at once.

“Did you invite Kaito over?” Kaede asked when she looked out the front window to see their friend standing outside, looking serious for once in his life. “I know he said he wanted to come see us sometime soon but I didn’t think he meant that soon.”

“Leave it to him to show up unannounced at a time like this.” Ignoring that he was dressed in his professional work clothes, after he’d just gotten home from dealing with some evidence for a case he was involved in, Shuichi went and opened the door to let Kaito inside, and was pushed past without a single word. “Er, hello to you too, Kaito. What’s got you so sour? You and Maki didn’t have a fight, did you?”

He shook his head, sticking both hands inside his jacket pockets and rocking back and forth on his heels as he watched the couple come towards him, Shuichi shutting the door to keep the cold out and Kaede getting up from her piano bench to meet them both in the middle of the room. “If I’d seen her after I’d found what she was hiding, I might’ve gone off on her a bit, but I haven’t seen her since sunrise. Normal Maki Roll things, that’s what she calls them. Except this, this isn’t her ‘normal’, not at all.”

“Is something wrong with her? What was she hiding?” Sounding worried, Kaede leaned in a bit closer, only for Shuichi to gently grab her and pull her back, his suspicions about what Kaito was doing telling him that it would be best to stay a bit away. He didn’t think that he was there to hurt them, but he did have a flair for being over-the-top at times and he’d hate for this to be one of them.

“You need to tell us, Kaito. If Maki’s keeping secrets that you think are important enough to run and tell friends about, then they need to be shared instead of being held hostage.” How Shuichi hoped that this was just an instance of Kaito getting something wrong and overreacting to it, but with how stone-faced his friend still was, he was beginning to believe that maybe they were about to have a full meltdown happen in front of them.

Anything would have been better than what they were given. “Yeah, okay, so I decided I’d be nice for a change and fold Maki’s clothes for her, which I never do. Opened up one of her drawers and found something that I know she shouldn’t have had, and I knew when I saw it that I had to bring it back to the people it rightfully belonged to.” Kaito pulled one hand out of the pocket it was hiding it, and out with it came an envelope that both of them recognized as the one that had been given to Maki for safekeeping.

At once, both of them tried explaining that she was supposed to have it, that she was the one responsible for the information held within it, but he cut them both off, pushing the envelope towards Shuichi. “No, no, don’t try defending her on this one, she took this from you guys. Must’ve gotten impatient waiting for you to tell us if I was right or not about what the little one is, but it’s weird.” They were still trying to convince him that nothing was weird about it and that she was intentionally given that envelope, but it was a hopeless fight they were fighting. “I know that good ol’ Maki Roll always wants to rub it in my face whenever I’m wrong, so why didn’t she do it this time?”

“You…looked in the envelope, didn’t you?” It was a silly question for Shuichi to ask, it was a blank envelope that looked as inconspicuous as possible, and the only way Kaito would have known it belonged to them was to open it and see what was inside. “You looked inside, saw whatever’s in there, and decided that you needed to bring it back to us because it’s got Kaede’s name on it, didn’t you?”

“Well yeah, figured that’d be pretty clear. I told you, I haven’t been able to talk to her about this since she hasn’t been home today.” To prove his point, Kaito began reopening the envelope right there in front of them, something that Kaede reached to stop but Shuichi didn’t want her to bother with. He took out the picture with them both watching what he was doing, and he began looking at it as he let the envelope fall to the floor. “How’d she get this from you guys, anyway? She can’t pass as Kaede here, and I didn’t take her to be so interested in all this that she’d steal something.”

“She didn’t steal it, that’s what we’ve been trying to tell you!” Now that she knew where the picture was, Kaede was inching closer to Kaito, considering grabbing it for herself and finishing ruining the surprise that she was pretty sure had already been ruined, if he’d really meant something he’d said. “We gave that to her so that she could let us know the news when we were ready for it!”

“That’s dumb, don’t you think? Why’d you want to wait to find out? I mean, I’m kind of disappointed knowing that the kid’s not a little Shuichi like I was hoping for, but maybe that’s what you wanted after all?” Kaito glanced up from the picture to see the two horrified expressions staring back at him and he tilted his head to one side in confusion. “Uh, why do you both look like I just said something wrong? You know I was on team boy from the start!”

Shuichi was first to gather his thoughts on the matter, and in the calmest voice he felt he could manage in that moment, he said, “Kaito, I think it would be best if you handed that over and went home.” At the same time, Kaede had covered her stomach with both hands and was mouthing the assumed meaning of what news she’d heard to herself, over and over again, with her eyes moving all around as she was processing everything.

“I don’t get what the big deal here is, you guys are acting all weird about this.” Doing as he was told, Kaito did hand the picture over to Shuichi, but he remained standing where he was. “I’m not leaving right now, I want to know why you guys are defending Maki for stealing something that belonged to you.”

“I already told you that she didn’t steal it. She was supposed to have hidden this from you so that this didn’t happen, but your attempt at being a decent husband for a change ruined that plan.” Her eyes had settled on the picture in Shuichi’s hands, but Kaede was focused more on putting Kaito in his place than anything right then. “We didn’t want to know what the baby is so that we could have a fun surprise later, and now you’ve gone and ruined it by being ‘disappointed’ to know that it’s not what you wanted us to have! How selfish do you need to be right now, Kaito, seriously?”

He looked at Kaede and saw that she wasn’t paying attention to him, yet when he side-stepped in an attempt to get to the door and get out of the house before she could lash out further she seemed to be staring right at him, and he could feel his blood run cold. “H-hey, I wouldn’t say it’s selfish, I was being considerate to my friends! If she had stolen it, wouldn’t you want it back?”

“Yes, but she didn’t steal it!” Now she was beginning to yell, the frustration of their well-planned surprise getting ruined by someone being too boneheaded for his own good taking over. “You need to apologize to us right now for telling us something we were trying not to know, and then you need to apologize to my _daughter_ for being such an idiot right now!”

As much as it shouldn’t have, it filled Shuichi with a special kind of pride hearing Kaede snap like that, but most of that pride immediately disappeared when it hit him hard that they knew they were having a baby girl. They weren’t supposed to know right then, and they hadn’t wanted to know, but now they knew, and they knew because of the person most vocal about them needing to have a boy. He now wasn’t going to be thinking about the baby in vague terms, and that made everything about her that much sweeter, everything happening there in that moment considered.

 _twelve_.

Just because they knew didn’t mean that they had to let everyone else in on the secret right away, and that was something that they decided after they’d finally gotten Kaito to apologize even halfway for what he’d done. Maki was still allowed to know (if she hadn’t looked for herself, which they didn’t know if she had or not), but not a single other person they knew could know until they were ready to do the reveal. That made the next week’s chalkboard note rather frustrating to make, as putting that they knew what the baby was would be so easy, yet it wasn’t something they wanted made public quite yet.

It was actually Maki who came up with the way they could announce it, or more specifically when they could. “Just saying, it would make for a nice present to everyone if you told them in next week’s update,” she suggested, looking at the board and how it was decorated for the nineteenth week. “I don’t know what you’d do to tell the world, I was going to just bluntly tell you both, but it’s something.”

“Being blunt doesn’t quite work with these pictures,” Kaede replied, her attention split between the board, Maki, and what Shuichi was doing sitting in her usual spot at the piano. “We have to be creative about it, that’s what all the people I’m copying do. We could go to the store and see if we can find anything I could wear for the occasion, do you think that would work?” She was met with two quick negative responses, one from someone who remembered the last time she wore something special for a picture far too well, and the other from someone who hated the idea of shopping for cutesy things in general. “Okay, scratch that idea off the list. Anyone else got anything?”

“Whatever you pick, I suggest doing it then, or else a certain space case might not be able to keep his lips sealed any longer.” Shaking her head, Maki continued looking at the board, scowling at some of what was written on it. “Seriously though, why are you two doing this to yourselves? Can’t you just go through the hell of having a kid without making it into some giant spectacle?”

“It just felt right to make this into a big deal. It’s not every day that you find yourself being given a present made of your love.” Her hand idly resting against her stomach, Kaede abruptly sat taller on the floor when she thought about what she’d said, in conjunction with what Maki had suggested before. “I got it! I know how we’re going to do this reveal when we do our next picture! Maki, you’re a genius!”

Her scowl fading ever-so-slightly, Maki said, “That’s not something I hear every day. What did I do to deserve that praise?”

“Something tells me we might not want to know that right now,” Shuichi remarked, seeing the excited light that had taken hold in Kaede’s eyes. He was curious as to what she’d come up with as well, but he also knew that her ideas were just wild enough to cause trouble, and the last thing he wanted was for there to be yet another issue. He turned his attention back to what he’d been working on at the closed piano, a list of some kind that he’d been adding to every few minutes as they’d all been talking. “I’m going to let her do that, I need to come up with a solution to a different problem.”

“Mind telling me what your problem is? I might know people who can help.”

“As much as I appreciate the offer, this is something I can handle on my own. It’s my fault for needing the solution in the first place, after all.” His vagueness didn’t exactly please Maki, but she didn’t question him further, and because Kaede had begun planning out what she was going to for the following week’s picture she was none the wiser to anything else happening there in their little house. Despite things having felt like they’d been ruined before, they were coming back together and being made to work, even if it wasn’t the most optimal of ways to make it all happen.

 _thirteen_.

Leaving the shopping for gifts to the last minute hadn’t been intentional across the board, but when it was a few days before Christmas and Shuichi’s phone was being inundated with messages about what he and Kaede would possibly want, he knew that his friends had put off shopping just as he had. He gave all of them the same answer, that whatever they were going to give them it needed to be thoughtful and not take up too much space in their house, but if they were going to turn the gift-giving into trying to buy things for the baby, they should wait and do that later.

He was never exactly given a straight answer as to what anyone was considering buying for them, but he did have a couple of ideas thrown at him, specifically home goods that any couple could use in their daily lives. Rejecting those ideas would just result in being gifted things that they wouldn’t need, so he told anyone who presented one of those ideas that they should go for it and hoped that would be the end of things. As for what he was going to get for his dearest wife, he already knew what he wanted for her, he just needed to go out and find the time to buy it without her knowing where he was going.

Every time Kaede had gone shopping, she’d gone out with friends to do it, but they had gone together a couple of times and she’d told him some things that she thought were cute. Taking her along would result in overbuying things that she probably would never wear, so he made sure that she was still asleep when he ducked out of the house and headed to the local shopping center where they tended to go whenever they wanted to grab something. One of the storefronts was for a combination mothers-and-children clothing store, which as far as he was aware he’d never gone inside, but they’d walked by the displays in the window so many times that he knew exactly what in there Kaede would be interested in.

After struggling to find somewhere to park for what felt like hours, he was able to make his way into the store, the saleswoman at the door greeting him with a welcoming smile and asking who he was shopping for, whether it was a friend or family. “I’m just looking, thanks,” he replied, not wanting someone trying to hover over him while he was doing his browsing and inevitable purchasing. The only thing accepting her offer for assistance would have done was direct him to the section of the store where the clothes in the window were displayed, but because he didn’t want to ask he got to weave through aisles of clothes that looked incredibly large on the rack, in addition to being rather dull in design.

The section he was looking for was located against the far wall, the bright colors and patterns of the clothes drawing his eyes to them. There was something about the font on those clothes that he’d noticed Kaede was incredibly fascinated with, as it decorated everything that she showed him that she’d find online, and while he thought it was tacky if she loved it, he wasn’t going to prevent her from having it. At the same time, most of the shirts with the sayings on them seemed a bit tasteless from his perspective, and even though this was for Kaede first and foremost, he wasn’t going to buy her something he didn’t like.

It took some searching, and a bit of arguing with himself about if this was really what he wanted to give her as a gift, but there was so much going on in their lives at the moment that any gifts were just extra goodies to be share that he brought himself to settle on a couple things there on that display. They weren’t everyday outfits, and he was certain he’d be the only one ever seeing her wearing them, but pajama sets were useful, especially in those cold winter months that were upon them. Tacky sayings or not, she’d love getting pajamas to replace the ones she was still wearing that were starting to get too small for her, and having them include her current interest was more of a bonus than anything.

When he was walking out of the store, he nearly was ran into by someone coming in, who took one look at him holding the bag of clothes in his hand and gasped in shock. “I wasn’t expecting to see anyone I knew here, let alone some nasty guy like you,” one Tenko Chabashira, close friend to them both (but much closer to Kaede than him) said, her voice serious until she added, “but I suppose it makes sense. You know to treat your woman with respect, good for you!”

“Yes, well, I’m sure you’re here to shop for her too, aren’t you?” The meek grin on her face as he correctly called her reason for being there made the interaction worth it, but just to cover his bases, Shuichi made sure to tell her not to get any kind of sleepwear, because he’d already taken care of that. She nodded before making a beeline back to that corner of the store, almost as if she was well-aware of Kaede’s interest in that kind of clothing, and he was able to proceed with leaving.

Once he was in the car, he slammed his head against the top of the steering wheel, regretting not telling Tenko to go find something else to buy, because she’d been one of the ones spending the most time out shopping for clothes with Kaede. As nice as her kindness on the matter was, she didn’t need to be doing so much for a friend, not when that friend had a husband who should have been doing all that and more. He knew he wasn’t being replaced by Tenko by any means, but the idea of Kaede appreciating what she did more than what he was doing would not leave his mind as he sat there, considering going back inside just to tell her to stop at once.

Taking the high road there was hard, but they were all acting out of love for Kaede, so crushing the holiday spirit would have gotten them absolutely nowhere. She deserved to have a great time opening gifts, no matter how many and who they were from.

_fourteen._

Shuichi had expected that Christmas morning was going to be a simple affair, he and Kaede would exchange their gifts and then they’d spend the rest of the day lounging around at home like any other day they had free together. He hadn’t even considered that he’d wake up to the sound of Kaede excitedly talking to someone in her best whisper voice, a conversation he didn’t want to interrupt but also didn’t want to be accidentally listening in on. To combat that, he decided he’d go find something else to do until she was finished, and then they could get into their plans for the day.

The something else he had in mind was easy, and it was actually useful for their current situation. Their house might have been small, but it always had been a two-bedroom home, even if the second room was beyond cluttered and unusable in its current state. They’d used it as a storage place for everything they had that they didn’t want to get rid of but didn’t need on a daily basis, which meant that it was full of books on music or items related to different criminal cases he’d been interested in. Cleaning that room was a top priority since they’d need the space rather soon, but no matter how hard he tried he just could not bring himself to do anything about what was stored in there. He couldn’t throw any of it away, the case-related items were too important to lose on the off-chance that any of the cases were reopened someday, and Kaede would honestly have his head if she found out her music books were gone.

But it was becoming a struggle of either keeping all their junk and not having anywhere to set up room for the baby, or getting rid of the junk and having the space available to decorate—and he knew without a doubt that Kaede was going to want them to decorate that space as much as possible. Mornings where he didn’t have anything to do and had some time to look at the damage there in the room were nice because they let him have more of a visual on what he needed to do to get the place usable, and that was when he found himself sitting next to a stack of boxes and going through them one by one to see what cold cases were represented in them, compiling a list of what all he had just in case he could find someone interested in taking on his collection. There was one person he knew of that he’d talked about it with before, but he had no idea if they were still interested, or if they had the room to store all of it.

“I thought maybe I’d find you in here,” Kaede said from the doorway, startling him because he didn’t realize how much time had passed since he’d left their bedroom. “You really want to get started on getting this ready for our girl, don’t you?” Every time she referred to the baby that way it made his heart flutter, but he didn’t want her knowing that she had that kind of power over him with such simple words. “I don’t blame you one bit, she’s going to be here before we know it and we…as you can see, haven’t gotten a single thing ready yet.”

“I’m working on it, don’t you worry.” Even if he wasn’t sure what they were going to actually do regarding the junk in the room, he wanted to give Kaede the sense that he had everything under control. He set aside the book of newspaper clippings he’d been leafing through and stood up, shaking the dust off of his pants as he turned around, only for her to grab him and pull him in close. “Oh, uh, what’s with the big hug? You have a bad conversation or something?”

“No way, it was just me talking with Tenko about a whole bunch of things I don’t understand why she needed my opinion on, it was really hard keeping my mouth shut about certain things but she’ll know soon enough, right?” She was moving Shuichi’s hands to wherever she wanted them to be, which in that moment was on her hips, yet when she wrapped her arms around him she had her fingers laced behind his back. “I’m so ready for everyone to know, keeping this quiet has been harder than anything before.”

“I’m sure it has been,” he said, thinking about the person she’d been talking to in specific and their last interaction, as well as how he knew that Tenko would be overjoyed when she found out that the baby was a girl—or basically, she’d act the exact opposite of how Kaito had. “Soon though, and it would be sooner if you’d, well, let go of me and let us go get the picture taken care of.”

Her position did not change beyond her trying to push closer to him. “No, we don’t have to worry about that right now, I still have so much to do to get ready for that! I have to look my best, I have to pick out what I’m going to wear, and then I have to…” She trailed off for a moment, before almost chirping as she brought herself back to her train of thought. “Oops, I’m not supposed to tell you about _that_ part of what we’re doing! I made a promise that you’d find that out right before the picture!”

“Who’d you make that promise to?” he asked, his hands clenching slightly and taking a deeper hold on her hips than he was sure he was supposed to. When she didn’t reply, and merely looked into his eyes as hers shined with a glint that he found amusing to see, he figured that he’d have to wait until later to find out, unless he got it right in one single guess. “Was it Tenko, was that why she called?”

“Please, she just wanted to talk about some of her own holiday stuff and her plans, and maybe a little bit about how she hopes the baby’s a girl so that she can teach her all her ways. Didn’t even bother me that she said that, because unlike a certain idiot she at least makes it clear it’s just hopeful thinking.” Laughing, Kaede once again tried to close the remaining gap between her and Shuichi, but he didn’t seem to budge and she wasn’t able to get any closer without him moving his arms into a new position, so she took some drastic measures while continuing talking as if she wasn’t doing anything. “It was Maki who came through with the idea for what to do, you knew this already.”

“I suppose I did know that, I just didn’t think she would actually go through with it.” He could feel her trying to get right up on him, and as nice as it was to have close contact with his wife, right then and right where they were could not be considered optimal by any means. “Here, let’s go back to the bedroom or at least somewhere that isn’t so messy before you, ahem, keep trying to get into my pants.”

She gasped, sounding offended, but when she laughed again it was dripping with her more romantic, almost seductive intent, something that he had to nearly bite his lip to keep from reacting to. “I know we shouldn’t here, I just wasn’t going to give up this opportunity when I had it. It’s not exactly every day that I can get my hands on you like this.”

“You could have at least asked if this was fine before you started,” he told her, his voice low because of how hard he was having to resist letting his own feelings on the matter be known. “I’m going to have to ask you to stop, Kaede, we don’t have the time right now and is this really the day we want to be doing anything?”

Without hesitation, she replied, “Yeah, it’s the day I want to be doing something, and there’s something in specific I have in mind,” and shoved both of her hands down the back of his pants, which he yelped in surprise at. “Can you even tell me the last time we _did_ anything?”

“My birthday, yes. Hands out, there’s better, more productive things we can be doing right now in here, or we can go elsewhere to continue what you seem to want.” She grumbled as she followed his demand, and as it wasn’t usual for him to be the one bossing her around he felt his chest rise slightly in pride at his own actions. “What’s even gotten into you right now, Kaede? You aren’t usually so forward about what you want.”

She took a big step back, causing his hands to come off of her hips, which allowed for her to get even further away without incident. “I don’t know, I just decided I wanted a good moment with my dearest Shuichi, I suppose. I can’t really tell you what got into me right there, I just…” Her hands started fidgeting as she brought them in front of her, arms raising until she was hiding her face behind her almost trembling fingers. “It doesn’t matter, I shouldn’t have done it. I’m going to go get ready for all the things we need to do today.”

“I didn’t tell you that you shouldn’t have done anything,” he called after her as she backed out of the room and headed for their bedroom, her feet carrying her as fast as they could given the small space they had to work with. Once she was gone, he was left staring at where she’d been before, a feeling deep inside of him telling him that he needed to go follow her, to take care of unfinished business that she’d started; he swallowed down every impure thought he currently had about his wife and told himself that they could take care of it later, it wasn’t the most appropriate time to be acting on those kinds of desires. Since he was alone once more, he translated his need to get his mind off of how handsy Kaede had been into more work there in the room, cataloguing more of what was in boxes for as long as he could keep his mind on the task.

There was something about how intimate she’d wanted to get in there that was making it rather difficult to keep working, as all he could think of was how she’d started grabbing him and how it made him feel. Eventually he had to get away, and so he put away everything where he’d gotten it from and went out to the living area, finding that she wasn’t in there but hearing her loudly playing a recording of classical music in the bedroom. There was the chance that she’d be indecent if he went to check on her, but he couldn’t see him encountering her like that ending well for either of them, especially not if they wanted to get anything done in a timely manner.

That meant that he had to find something to do in the living room instead, and that was when his eyes landed on the board, which had been erased and was sitting there completely bare, minus the glued-on letters on its top and bottom. It was definitely Kaede’s special project, but he knew that if he had anything to add to it, she wouldn’t be offended as long as it was something meaningful. Looking at those bare white letters, an idea crossed his mind that they’d talked about before, but he didn’t know if they had the supplies to make it work right then. There was no chance of the craft store being open, so it was either possible with something they had, or it would have to wait, and the only way he’d know if they had what they needed would be to go ask Kaede.

Tiptoeing to the bedroom door, Shuichi could hear her music playing but nothing else was audible, meaning that she might not have been doing anything other than sitting on the bed, which was innocent and pure and something he could handle right then. He pushed it open and found the room actually empty, but the bathroom door was mostly closed, which he took to assume that she’d started getting ready after all. “Hey, Kaede, whatever you’re doing, can I ask you something?”

“Huh? What’s there that you need to ask me?” her voice replied from the other side of the bathroom door, sounding exactly as it usually did, which implied that she’d gotten over her sudden bout of seductiveness, a good sign for their day. “I promise I’m not doing anything bad in here.”

“Didn’t think you were. I’m just wondering if we ever got any paint for the letters on the board, since that’s something I could do to kill some time while you get ready.” He approached the bathroom door, wanting to make sure he clearly heard her response rather than allow for it to be drowned out by the sound of the music. “If you don’t want me to do it, or if we don’t have paint, that’s fine, I was just—”

“It’s in the bag on the bed, actually! Maki brought it over the last time she came by, she said that she and Kaito picked some colors out for us to use for that!” That was a strange sentence to hear, given how they both knew one of those two still felt about the whole situation, but any kind of support from their friends was appreciated. He could even forgive her for being so eager to tell him where the paint was when she sounded that happy to say it, so he thanked her for telling him where it was and went to check the bag to see what was inside of it. There were two small bottles of paint as well as a pack of brushes, which were another aspect to the craft that he hadn’t thought of before, but while he was grabbing those he noticed something peculiar about the paint colors that had been chosen.

“Typical Maki, wanting everything to be red,” he said as he picked the bottles up, the bright purple one immediately striking him as Kaito’s contribution, while the deep red one had a piece of paper taped to it. The paper was a note, written by Maki, explaining that there hadn’t been pink paint and she hadn’t wanted to buy white to mix with her red, so they’d have to make it work. “I’m sure Kaede’s already seen this and knows that she’ll have to make it obvious with what she writes on the board, but if she hasn’t…” He could only imagine what kind of negative, almost breakdown of a reaction she would have if she didn’t know about the choice in colors, but there was no sense in dwelling on it. It was either paint the letters with what they had, or not paint them until later, and he wasn’t going to let his friends’ attempt at helping them go to waste.

Without telling Kaede anything about what he planned to do with the paint and the letters, in terms of how they were going to get decorated, he left the bedroom and closed the door behind him, muffling the sound of her music as he walked towards where the board was hanging. It might have made it easier if he took it down and painted with it on the floor, but he was able to reach all parts that needed paint with ease and it wasn’t too inconvenient to be painting while standing, especially as all he was doing was putting a single color on each letter. There was a bit of temptation to just disregard the red paint and use only the purple one, but the thought of Maki getting offended about that crossed his mind and convinced him that it would be best for the colors to be used as equally as possible.

He started with the letters on top, making two purple and two red, and as they dried he squatted down and began working on the ones on the bottom. While painting the _S_ in a coat of the purple paint, watching it shimmer as it dried, it hit him hard that what he was doing was about something he’d created, something that he was responsible for. This wasn’t just any baby that he was making something for, it was his baby, and the power in the fact that they were still publicly referring to her only as Baby Saihara hadn’t actually meant anything to him until right then. She was real, they’d known that for a long time, but now everyone was going to know what she was, and they were going to start building expectations for her based on who her parents were.

As he painted, he kept thinking about the life he and Kaede might have forced their child into, just for being their kid. People might expect her to grow up with immense musical talent like her mother, or with an interest in criminals and solving crimes like her father, and that wasn’t going to be fair to her, especially not if they started doing it right away. She had so much time to grow and learn and become her own person before anyone needed to start placing judgment on her, and if he heard anyone talk about how she needed to be a certain way because of her parents he wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle it. That must have been why what Kaito had kept doing was so bothersome to them, because he’d been pushing his own desires onto a child that none of them had even met.

This time, when Kaede walked up behind him, he heard her before she could say anything, as she took in a sharp breath at the sight of the alterations he’d made to the board. “That looks really nice, Shuichi, great job!” she said, clapping her hands together in excitement as he turned to look at her. “Hey what are you doing? Don’t be looking at me, get back to work! You have letters to paint!”

He blankly stared at her for a moment, jaw starting to lower in surprise at what he saw, but he did as she said and turned hurriedly back to finish what he’d started. “Sorry, I figured you wanted something from me if you were out here. I wasn’t expecting to see you already ready to get this picture done.”

“Of course I’m ready to get it done, I told you I was going to get ready and I wouldn’t lie to you about that. I just wanted to see how close it was to when I can write everything on there, but it looks like that time’s going to be really soon! Let me go get the chalk, so when you’re done I can jump right into it!” He heard her walk away and quickly return, coming up right behind him and leaning over him so that she could reach the board effectively while he finished up the last few brushstrokes. “I’m just going to start now, if that’s okay with you. A little chalk dust never hurt anyone, I don’t think.”

“It’s okay, I’m done anyway,” he said, sliding out of the way and making sure to move the bottles of paint and dirty paintbrushes so that Kaede didn’t accidentally step on any of them. “It wasn’t too hard of work, just a bit thought-provoking, and I’m sure I would’ve been faster if I hadn’t gotten lost in my thoughts about the whole thing.”

“Yeah, trust me, I know how that is. I would’ve been ready so much sooner if I didn’t keep thinking about how crazy this all is, and amazing too, can’t forget how amazing it is.” Kaede was writing with her phone nowhere in sight, which meant that everything she was putting on the board for the twenty-week update was straight from her heart. “We’re going to tell everyone that we’re having a little girl, we’re at least halfway to getting to meet her, everything’s happening so fast but not fast enough and I’m just so excited to see what’s going to happen in the future!”

He nodded, understanding exactly what she was saying and the feelings she had behind every word, but he didn’t know what he could say to complement what she already had. Choosing to leave it alone, he went to put the paint somewhere safe and came back to see her still writing, softly humming something to herself that he didn’t recognize. “Kaede, sorry if this is rude, but what song is that?” he asked, taking a seat on the piano bench as he watched her work. “It sounds lovely, but I don’t think I’ve heard it before.”

“Oh, uh, I didn’t realize you could hear me,” she replied, sounding flustered that her humming had been noticed. “It’s just something I’ve been working on, it’s nowhere near finished and isn’t really good but I can’t get it out of my head. Ignore it, you’ll get to hear it when it’s better!” Even though they’d been together for a while and he’d been with her through many different moments of songs being stuck in her head, this was the first time he’d actually caught her humming something, and that struck him as strange about what she’d said. He wasn’t dumb and knew that it was probably something to do with the music she’d been insistent on making, but if she wanted it left alone he wasn’t going to argue.

There was something more important to address anyway, and that required her finishing what she was doing and turning around to face him. Her face was alight with a smile and her hands were coated in chalk, but there was something else about her appearance that Shuichi wanted to draw attention to when she finished writing. “Is that what you’re going to be wearing for the picture? It’s adorable if it is.”

“I mean, why else would I be wearing it?” Arching her back to make her stomach more noticeable than it needed to be, especially since she had a giant pink bow tied around it that hung off the side, Kaede giggled when Shuichi stood up and got the chalk from her hands, setting it aside so that all she had to worry with then was the dust if she touched anything. “This is the real thing Tenko wanted to talk to me about earlier, she wanted me to take today’s picture wearing this shirt because her and Himiko worked _so_ hard to find it for me and I had to tell her, like, a million times that it was the plan.”

“And the bow?”

“Maki’s idea, she said that she wasn’t going to get pink paint but a pink ribbon she’d put her pride aside for getting.” After brushing her hands off on each other, she touched one of the loose ends of the ribbon, making it flutter where it hung. “So now we get to tell everyone that…” Her eyes looked down at the shirt she was wearing, reading the text that was printed on it upside down from her view point, in that font that Shuichi had seen far too much of at that clothing store. “…Mommy and Daddy’s special present is a baby girl, I guess!”

The potential reactions to that news were already running through Shuichi’s head, but he wasn’t going to say a word of them to Kaede to bring her mood crashing down. He was going to let her remain happy about this as long as she could be, and if that meant looking at all the responses before she got to in order to clean out any ones with high expectations for the child’s future, that was just how it was going to be. He was already becoming a protective father, and he was certain she’d be okay with that if she knew how he felt. Until then, though, there was something they still needed to do, and there was no sense in holding back on doing it.

“Let’s go ahead and give everyone their gift from us then, shall we?” he suggested, watching her face light up more than it already had been. “I have a feeling that this might be the best thing most people we know hear all day.” And thankfully, judging by all of the comments they got after they posted the sickeningly sweet picture he took of her by the board, it really did seem to be the best thing anyone had the chance to learn.


	3. Chapter 3

_fifteen._

If it had been a normal year, there might have been some kind of plans to celebrate the New Year with friends, or perhaps go out to a large celebration as a whole group. But with Kaede being pregnant, trying to commit to doing anything was difficult at best, because there was never really telling what she would be willing to do, and Shuichi did not feel comfortable going anywhere where rowdy people might have been. They decided that it would be best to just spend the night together at home, where nothing was likely going to go wrong for either of them.

That plan was destroyed when late that evening, someone knocked on the door, sounding impatient as they waited to be acknowledged. “I didn’t invite anyone over, I swear,” Kaede said, watching as Shuichi went to the door to see who was there, their usual way of checking through the front window impossible with it being dark outside. “I considered it, but then I chose not to because we said we’d be here alone tonight. Figured it would be best not to go against my word there.”

“I wasn’t going to accuse you of inviting anyone, don’t worry.” His faith in his wife keeping her word was enough to make Shuichi believe her without hesitation, and that was why he cracked the door open just a bit to see a pair of deeply angered eyes staring in at him. “Maki? What are you doing here? Didn’t you and Kaito have something to do tonight?”

“Something that got ruined when someone in the building set fire to their kitchen. Let us in, we’re not waiting all night in the parking lot hoping we get to go back to our place.” Her glare did not let up even slightly as Shuichi opened the door enough for her to come in, her pushing past him and immediately taking her jacket off and tossing it onto the floor by the second bedroom’s door. “By the way, because I know he’s a jackass who won’t do it, I’m going to apologize on Kaito’s behalf in advance.”

“I can’t think of anything he can do that would upset us,” Kaede assured her, standing up to greet her friend with a hug but being coldly ignored, something she had to play off by pretending like she’d been going to join Shuichi by the door. “Where is he, anyway? You didn’t abandon him somewhere, right?”

“Believe me, I’d be happier if I had.” Her response was as bitter as her behavior, but if her story was true and they really had been smoked out of their place for the evening, it at least made sense. She headed towards the kitchen, claiming that she needed to get a glass of water, and right as Kaede and Shuichi looked between each other to decide which one would go follow her, the person they were waiting for came barreling in through the door, an open bottle of some sort in his hand.

He was laughing as the door was closed tightly behind him, carrying on like he was already having a good time, and it was obvious that the joy of the holiday was more important to Kaito right then than the issue they’d had at home. “I did some thinking before I went and bought this for the party, and here it is,” he explained, holding the bottle of the single cheapest liquor anyone could go to the store and purchase up high enough for the others to read the label. “It’s disgusting, but that’s kinda why you’ve gotta do shots of it, to make ‘em go down quicker. Maki Roll said that she wasn’t going to do any with me, but either of you down for it?”

“You idiot, I already told you that the only one drinking that is going to be you,” she snapped from in the kitchen, having been able to hear his very loud voice without even trying. “If you think that Shuichi’s going to be stupid enough to do it, you’re wrong, and asking Kaede is the single most moronic thing you could do right now.”

“It is?” Kaito glanced at Kaede, who instinctively crossed her arms in front of her stomach as a form of protection, and he shrank back when he remembered why she wouldn’t be interested in sharing his drink with him. “Oh man, look, I might’ve done a couple shots while we were waiting to go back home, I guess I forgot that you can’t have any. Can’t expect you to drink while you’re carrying mini Kaede, that would be bad.”

“How about we just put that away and not touch it again while you’re here?” Shuichi was reaching for the bottle, to try and get it from Kaito’s grasp even without his suggestion being accepted, but it was moved out of reach and he was left shaking his head in disbelief at what was unfolding. “Listen, I know that a drink at midnight’s fun and all, but we’re hours away from then and we weren’t planning on staying up that late anyway.”

Reentering the room with two glasses of water in her hands, Maki was glaring daggers in Kaito’s direction as he continued holding the bottle just out of Shuichi’s reach. “Give him your alcohol or I’ll take it and dispose of it,” she threatened, pushing one of her glasses towards him. “I told you that if we got let in here, you wouldn’t be allowed to have that and you insisted anyway, idiot.”

“Stop calling me an idiot, will you? I’m a lot smarter than you give me credit for!” In response to her offer of water, Kaito retaliated with a waggle of his bottle towards her, which actually worked against him as it gave Shuichi enough of an opening to grab it from him, only splashing a small amount out of the mouth and onto himself. “Look, was it me who tried to burn down our building? No, it wasn’t, the guy who did that’s the idiot tonight, not me, okay?”

“I think that maybe we should go back to what we were doing before they showed up,” Kaede said to Shuichi, her voice low enough that neither of them would hear her. “I was enjoying myself before this, and I’m sure you were too.”

He looked at the spot on his arm that was wet with liquor and nodded. “I think I’d prefer cleaning the room over having to be present for any of this. You could start playing something on the piano, that might be enough to get them to stop, but I have to go wash this off before I smell like it all night.”

“You’re going to leave me here in the room with them?” There was genuine fear found in Kaede’s voice right then, but Shuichi felt like he didn’t have much of a choice on the matter, so he assured her he would be back as fast as possible and ducked out. She watched him go to the kitchen, then turned her attention towards the couple still arguing about whether or not Kaito was an idiot, and decided that perhaps what she’d been told to do would be best. Her piano was ready for playing, and there were many songs she could pick from to use as a distraction from what they were doing.

She didn’t even start playing when the room went silent for a moment, followed by Maki clearly saying, “Look, we’re going to get treated to a free show. Exactly what we’ve always wanted.” What she meant by that, Kaede wasn’t sure, but she did know that she now had expectations on her shoulders about the quality of her music. She knew that once she started everything would be okay, but she needed to be able to make that jump to start.

“Hold on, don’t ignore that we’re here with your piano,” Kaito said, coming to stand right behind Kaede and, while hovering over her, looking down until she looked up directly into his grinning face. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something, and now’s a perfect time for it if you ask me. Shots or no shots, I need to have this talk with you before it’s too late to do anything about it.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

His grin grew, causing his eyes to crinkle mostly closed, and he gave her a thumbs-up that she so badly wanted to ignore. “Calling the baby mini Kaede doesn’t sit right with me, got any suggestions for something else I can call her? I was thinking girl Shuichi would work, but then I thought you’d hate that so…what would you like me to do? If she was a he, which I wish she was, I’d probably be calling her Shuichi Junior right now, but maybe I’ll do that anyway. Or Kaede Junior? Which one’s your preference?”

It was a rambling mess of a question that Kaede did not want to answer, and she found herself averting her gaze so she didn’t have to keep looking at him any longer. “My preference is that you don’t call her any of those names. She’s not a mini-me, she’ll be her own person and you should respect that.”

“Continuing calling her mini Kaede it is, then. Thanks!” He gave her a solid pat on the back before wandering back towards Maki, who was giving him an incredibly exasperated expression for what he’d done. “Look, I got the permission you wanted me to get, now will you leave me alone about how I talk about the kid?”

“That is nowhere near what I told you to do, but you know what? Not worth it.” Inhaling and exhaling several times through her nose, Maki tried her past to look past Kaito to see what Kaede was doing now, which was sitting at her piano in almost a daze. “You must’ve knocked the wind out of her, great job.”

“Oh no, he didn’t knock the wind out of me, don’t worry,” Kaede replied, setting her fingers on the keys and gently pressing down on one to cause the piano to play a quiet note. “I was just thinking about what song to play, you know how I get when I decide I’m going to play something. It has to be just right to fit the mood.”

The song she settled on was one of the “starter” songs for learning piano, but it was recognizable and did wonders to settle down the arguing and tense atmosphere that had taken hold there in the house. From in the kitchen, Shuichi was pleased to hear that she’d decided to start playing something that he knew without having to guess as to what it was, but at the same time he wished that she’d picked something a little more special for the moment. This was the last day of the year, the next day was going to be the first day of the year their life changed forever, and ringing it in with special music the whole night unintentionally being spent with friends seemed more fitting. He wasn’t going to share that thought with Kaede though, in case she was being meaningful with her song selection and him saying she should play something different came across as offensive.

When he reentered the main room, the liquor bottle tucked away in a cupboard that Kaito would never search in, he saw that the guests had taken the two spots on the old couch that had already been moved in closer to where Kaede’s piano was sitting. They had moved that couch closer to the dining room half of the space forever ago, and he was confused on how he hadn’t heard it getting pushed across the floor, but then he realized he’d been more focused on what Kaede was playing than anything else. Her music was a large distraction, and it was a blessing that nothing had happened to warrant him needing to do something while he’d been listening to it.

“So is this going to be the plan for the evening?” he asked, taking a seat on the floor halfway between the arm of the couch and where the door was, closest out of the four of them to the second bedroom. “Not like I’m complaining, it’s how I spend a lot of nights, but I’m sure you two were expecting something a bit grander.”

“If we wanted to do anything grand, we’d go find where other friends are hanging out,” Maki replied, side-eyeing Kaito as he looked like he was going to say something and shushing him before he had the chance to get a word out. “We’re fine with having a simple night tonight here with you, at least until we can get back in to our place. And then we’re going back right away. I’m not forcing the two of you to deal with him longer than necessary.”

“It was only a couple shots, Maki Roll, you’re acting like I drank half the bottle.” Pretending like the fact that he’d had a minimal amount of alcohol was the problem (even if the amount was true, based on how much had still been in the bottle when Shuichi had hidden it), Kaito endured her shushing him again before he stood up and grabbed her arms, tugging her to her feet as well despite her trying her best to stay seated. “I don’t get what the problem here is tonight, why am I suddenly some bad guy when we’re over here visiting? I’ve done nothing but be a great friend, haven’t I?”

His question was so off-base that it stopped everything in the room for a moment, including the piano-playing that had seemed like a constant for the past several minutes. “I’d check your definition of ‘great friend’ if I were you,” Kaede quietly said before resuming her playing. “You’re not a bad one, but you’re not exactly the best either.”

“Ha, that’s not actually you talking, that’s clearly something else telling you to say that! Come on, don’t act like I’m supposed to believe you mean that!” He was still holding Maki’s arms, even though she had the deadliest glare in her eyes every second longer he kept touching her, and he was unaware of the sour look on Kaede’s face when she heard his response. “Everything here’s great between us all, isn’t it?”

“Kaito, I think that it’s for the best if you sit down and stop talking for a bit,” Shuichi told him, being able to see everyone’s reactions from his vantage point. “I can’t say that any of us are mad at you, except maybe Maki, but you’re digging yourself a hole you might not want to be in. Sit down, listen to everyone else for a change, and accept that you’re not winning.”

“Not winning? Since when does a sidekick tell the person in charge that he’s not winning and actually mean it?” Letting go of Maki’s hands to turn towards Shuichi, Kaito completely underestimated the fact that he’d just been told that his wife wasn’t pleased with him, and he found himself swiftly being knocked to the floor with a well-aimed punch to the gut, Maki shaking her fist once he was curled up on the floor.

“Keep talking like that and I’ll aim below the belt next time,” she calmly stated, making a gesture of taking a second swing at him. “You’re being obnoxious and need to cool it, idiot.”

Squirming as he saw the shadow of Maki’s swing, Kaito took a moment to respond and when he did it was to the last word she’d said more than anything. “Stop calling me an idiot, will ya? I get it, I need to stop what I’m doing, but you can at least tell me a bit nicer next time!”

“Niceness doesn’t get through to you. Pain does.” Sighing, Maki looked at Kaede with a slightly apologetic look in her eyes. “I wish I could say I’m sorry that this happened, but let’s be honest with ourselves. If it wasn’t me, it would’ve been you knocking him to the floor. I just saved you the effort.”

“No worries, I don’t blame you for doing what you had to.” Kaede put a large smile on her face, one that was clearly faked to mask however it was she actually felt, but the charade failed when she spoke and her voice was higher-pitched than usual. “Now can we get back to having a nice night? I really want to finish this year off on a positive note.”

The delayed laughter at her bad joke was enough to turn the tide of the evening, even though things weren’t going as they’d planned, or more accurately, not planned.

 _sixteen_.

As predictable as it would have been to post the next update on the first of the year, Kaede decided she would wait until the actual first day of the next week before she did it, which only meant an extra day’s wait and that wasn’t too bad, all things considered. When she woke up that morning, she told Shuichi that they’d be taking care of the picture that day, and he’d agreed to the plan, but he had to warn her in advance that he had plans of his own for the day and he couldn’t be sure when he’d be available to help her out.

“It’s okay, I’ll only need you for two minutes tops once everything’s set up,” she assured him, something that had been fairly standard for their weekly pictures that didn’t come with some kind of extra baggage. While this was the New Year’s picture, only a day late, she wasn’t intending on going too wild with what she’d be doing in it, mostly because she hadn’t been able to find any good ideas online to steal inspiration from, but it was partially due to something she’d received as a Christmas gift from someone that she wanted to make use of. If she wanted to make a big deal of the holiday, she’d do it on the chalkboard itself, not on any part of her person.

Shuichi felt confident in leaving her to her own devices for the day, especially since she had her picture preparations to be making; he was starting to get wary whenever he was gone for a solid amount of time, the fear of something going wrong that he wouldn’t be around to prevent beginning to take root in his mind. He could solve all sorts of problems, provided that he was there to actually take care of them, and if he was out doing work-related things he wasn’t exactly accessible to his wife if she needed him. The one upside to the day’s plans was that he wasn’t working at all, something he felt he should have told Kaede before leaving but chose not to mention because he didn’t want her inviting herself along with him or something crazy like that.

Not like he was going somewhere that she couldn’t go, of course, but he didn’t want her to start stressing out over the details of something that he felt entirely responsible for. In the last few days of the year he’d gotten word of someone who would be interested in taking a look through his collection of case files, and he’d been working through a middleman to set up a time to meet with them somewhere that they could discuss it before he took them to the house to see for themselves. It was odd enough when the address he was given to meet them at was his own work headquarters, when he hadn’t mentioned a thing about where he worked, but as he was driving over it hit him that it would only make sense if someone he knew on a professional level wanted the materials, given what they could mean for their line of work someday in the future.

The person sitting outside the office door, wearing a thick jacket that covered everything up to their nose and a hood to cover almost everything else as they waited on the bench usually swarming with people smoking, got up from where they were when he parked and came towards them, brandishing his key to let them both in the building. “I would have let myself in, if I had known no one would be here,” the person said once they were inside, pulling their hood off and exposing long, purple hair that cascaded once it was free. “It was an oversight that I’m frankly a bit ashamed about.”

“No worries, it happens sometimes.” The moment the hood came off Shuichi knew who this person was without an introduction, and he was a bit taken aback at how casual she was being about making a mistake like that with everything he’d heard about her. “We can’t be perfect all the time, if people were then people like us wouldn’t have jobs, don’t you think?”

“I suppose that would be correct,” she replied as she unzipped the top of her jacket and let her face become exposed to the warm air inside the foyer of the building, as Shuichi locked the door once more behind them. “Would you mind heading up to my office while I check to see what space I’ve been allotted for this acquisition, or do you have plans of your own since we’re here?”

He looked at her for a second as she was continuing removing her jacket, exposing a tighter coat that looked like a stylish trench-coat of sorts, before shaking his head. “I wanted to go check if there are any cases for me to work on tomorrow, so meet back here once we’re both done with what we need to do?” he suggested instead, wanting to go see where her elusive office was located but also wanting to be able to make money as soon as possible by doing proper work. She didn’t answer, turning without a word and walking briskly towards the elevator, which told him that she either wasn’t thrilled with that idea or she was going to go along with it because it had been thrown out there.

A different key was needed to get through the second set of interior doors into the detective agency office that Shuichi did work for, and he was thankful that it was him who’d remembered to bring keys rather than the person he was meeting. While he was unlocking the door, he was thinking about how unlikely it was that the first person who’d shown a genuine interest in the case files was the almost-famous Kyoko Kirigiri, a well-known detective who worked on large cases and had a name for herself that struck fear in the hearts of major criminals with something to hide. He was sure that he didn’t have anything she’d want or need in the boxes of clippings and reports he’d saved, but there had to be some reason why she was interested in taking it off his hands.

The only cases that were ready to be selected seemed to be simple enough, so Shuichi grabbed the files for both and ran them into his own office for when he came to work the next day, only to turn around and go back out to the foyer to wait for Kyoko to return. It was tempting to spend more time in his office, but with the place being closed that day as part of an extended holiday, he wasn’t going to manage to do much if he hung around. At least being in the foyer meant that he’d know when she was ready to start their discussion, and while he was waiting he couldn’t help but start thinking about what she intended to do with the files if she did take them. This was one of the most prominent detectives in the area, she didn’t need to be dwelling on cases that were unsolved and far past their relevance.

The moment the elevator door opened and Kyoko stepped out of it, her heavy coat still draped over her arm as if she hadn’t moved it after taking it off, she took a few steps out before Shuichi was right there, ready to get the discussion over with. “Eager, are we?” she asked, sounding amused, but only barely. “When I heard word of a collection of old files needing to find a new home I was skeptical of their validity, but when I learned you were the one trying to get rid of them, I figured pursuing the opportunity was worth a shot. You seem like you keep your ducks in a row, Saihara, why are you giving these up?”

“I need the space at home, if we’re being honest.” Feeling awkward about the idea of having to put aside a passion project for the sake of his growing family, Shuichi hoped that she wasn’t going to pry into the reason right there. He didn’t think that she would turn the idea down if she knew the full truth behind why he needed the room clear, but he didn’t want to make this a time to talk about Kaede and his relationship with her. It needed to stay strictly on the case files and getting them moved. “There’s a lot of boxes that I can’t bring myself to part with, I’m certain they’ll find use again someday.”

“Do you think amateur detectives would be able to make sense of them, build their own theories and conspiracies about the crimes detailed based on the evidence you have?” Kyoko pursed her lips together when she finished speaking, both eyes mostly closed yet still focused on Shuichi’s face, and when he nodded she brought a gloved hand to her face, stroking her cheek gently a couple times. “I would have to see the size of the collection to make a proper offer, but I know of somewhere you could donate everything I cannot find use for.”

“As long as it’s not being thrown away, I could do a donation.” There was hope that she’d want most of the files for herself, but Shuichi could understand the logistics of that being nightmarish and even if she was donating everything else, it was going to be better than letting it rot in a landfill somewhere. “Since it’s you, and everyone here knows who you are, I feel comfortable letting you come see the collection now, if you’d like. But only if you’d like, I don’t want to, uh, seem like I’m rushing you into this.”

She gave a slow blink, her finger still moving across her cheek at the same pace it had been before. “I’m fairly certain my schedule is free right now, so if you will allow it I would like to see the files for myself.” He watched her bow slightly, her lips curled into a small smile when her head poked back up. “The question is, are you going to be okay with me going to your house on such short notice?”

“If anything weird is happening there, I’ll stop it before you come in, you can count on me to do that.” Already he was thinking about what Kaede could possibly be doing, especially since she might have taken his warning of not knowing when he’d be back to mean that he’d be out until late. “Let me give you my address so we can both drive over, that way if you decide you want to take files today you can do that easily.”

Their meeting had lasted all of twenty minutes, most of which was time spent doing their own thing, and they were already prepared to go find a new location to continue the meeting. The drive to and from the office building took longer than the time he’d spent there, so when he was pulling up in the street in front of the house he’d barely been gone an hour and might just have been done going places for the day. Kyoko was not far behind him, and when they were both standing outside the house she made an observation that many people visiting for the first time made: “Is that someone playing the piano? Do you have a musician for a neighbor?”

“Er, no, that’d be my wife inside playing, actually,” he replied, jumping towards the door but holding a hand out behind him to stop Kyoko from following. “Let me make sure she’s decent and ready for a visitor before you come inside.”

“Would she typically be indecent?”

“No, I didn’t mean that she wouldn’t be actually decent, I just want to make sure she’s comfortable with someone she doesn’t know coming in.” He could feel the judgment coming from Kyoko despite not even seeing her, and he quickly let himself inside the house to see Kaede sitting at her piano, her phone out in front of her and her fingers flying across the keys to make the music they’d been hearing. “What happened to getting ready for the picture, Kaede? Did you decide to practice instead?”

At the sound of his voice her playing stopped and she turned her head to look at him with a smile. “I got the board done and I’m ready to go, I just really thought that I could spend my time waiting for you working on this song. It’s still a work-in-progress, of course, but I’m starting to think it’s getting better!” She paused, before who she was talking to sank in, and she scrambled to get her legs around to the other side of the bench. “Are we ready to take the picture now, Shuichi? I’d love it if we were!”

“I can’t at the moment, I’ve brought someone over to look through my boxes in the other room. Once she’s gone we can take care of that, though, I promise you that’s what we’ll do.” He turned his back on her for a moment, to peek outside and let Kyoko know it was safe to come in, but when he turned around once more Kaede was right there, causing him to jump in surprise at her sudden appearance. “You moved quickly, why are you—”

“Because I want to see who you invited over,” she answered before he even got his question out, wrapping an arm around him to comfort him in his spooked confusion. “Nothing big, really. If they’re coming into my house then it’s only fair I get to meet them.”

“—okay, but that doesn’t explain why you had to come stand right here in the way. Let’s step away from the door so she can come inside at least, otherwise we might never get that room clean.” Because she refused to let go of him right then, her nails digging into the sleeve of his jacket where she was clinging to him, Shuichi had to shuffle them both to the side, so that when Kyoko came inside she had actual room to walk through and a way to close the door behind her.

Kyoko had closed the door to be polite, even though he had been intending on doing it and would have had he not been being held onto by Kaede, and when she turned to look at him and saw the clearly pregnant woman attached to his side, she couldn’t help but give a single chuckle at the sight. “That would explain why the messages I received had such a sense of urgency to them, you need these files gone to prepare for a special arrival it seems, hm?” she asked, her eyes having gone from seeing Kaede as a whole to narrowing in on her face. “Not only that, but I suppose the beautiful piano music makes sense seeing who you’re married to. I was unaware you had such a refined taste in women, Saihara.”

“I didn’t know that you two knew each other,” Kaede said after giving Kyoko a once-over and recognizing her from somewhere that she didn’t expect to be mentally calling back to at that point in her life. “I mean, wow, not really surprising because you’re a detective-investigator person like Shuichi is, but I thought you did more work with the school than anything else!”

“Assisting with events at Hope’s Peak is something I do in my spare time, I would rather devote my life to the detective work than get wrapped up in children’s educations.” Once again Kyoko was bowing her head, this time towards Kaede, who returned the gesture without hesitation. “I would ask you if you would be interested in taking part in any ceremonies this year but given your condition I suppose that would be in bad taste.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t think playing the piano is something that’ll get harder over time, I can do it if you offer me a role!” There was excitement in Kaede’s voice that seemed misplaced, and while Kyoko found her enthusiasm humorous enough to chuckle again, Shuichi wasn’t as fond of it, and would have stepped in and stopped further discussion had Kaede not decided she wanted to be finished with the conversation anyway. “I’ll leave you two to your detective stuff, just don’t forget to invite me if you need a pianist for something!”

She parted with a kiss on Shuichi’s cheek, before going back to her piano to continue playing what she’d been working on before. “What a small world,” Kyoko remarked, watching Kaede take her seat and hearing the music start up as if it had never stopped. “When we invited her to the graduation ceremony a few years ago, I had no idea that I would cross paths with her once more. This is something that the board will find interesting when I tell them about it, especially her eagerness to assist with more ceremonies.”

“Please, don’t encourage her right now, if it’s something soon then it’s fine but she shouldn’t be making plans for months from now.” It wasn’t every day that Shuichi decided he would fight against Kaede being involved in things, but his worried mind was jumping to every possible negative conclusion if she decided to commit to something closer to what her due date was. “Let’s just look at the boxes, see what you can find, and then you can…hold on, are you going to donate the unwanted files to Hope’s Peak?”

“Plenty of fledgling detectives make their way through the school, it would be wrong if I didn’t supply them with cases to test themselves on.” Once again taking her jacket off, now that she was inside somewhere warm, Kyoko set it on the coat rack by the door rather than carrying it with her, as Shuichi decided that she had a point about detectives needing to test themselves and took her into the small bedroom that was still filled with boxes.

This was the part of his day that he didn’t know the duration of, and to the sound of Kaede’s playing in the main room they searched through the vast majority of the boxes, Kyoko making a pile of things she’d take for herself, while commenting consistently on how everything else would make for perfect practice. They had to have been in there for several hours, based on how many times they heard the music stop, a door or two somewhere else in the house slam, then the doors all open and the music resume. By the time they’d finished with most of the boxes that had cases in them (as opposed to the musically-themed books that were scattered here and there), Kyoko had found quite a bit of material she wanted to keep for her own purposes.

“I’ll have a truck by tomorrow to get the rest, if that’s fine with you,” she said after she was getting her jacket back on, so that she could carry her new belongings out to her vehicle without freezing in the bitter cold outside. “I’m assuming that waiting one more day won’t put too much of a wrench in your plans for the room, given that you still have quite a bit in there to take care of.”

“Don’t worry, waiting until tomorrow for the files to get picked up is fine.” That was actually a lot quicker of a turnaround than he’d expected this to have, but he wasn’t going to start thanking Kyoko until things were actually gone, in case she decided to go back on her word. Believing in her was the easy thing to do, but at the same time it felt like putting all his trust in her right then could end up backfiring. “Once I can get in there and actually look around a mostly-clean room, we can move on with planning on what to do. All the music books are Kaede’s problem, which means they’re my problem and we’ll be saving them until our child’s old enough to learn about that sort of thing.”

“If your daughter is anything like her mother, I’m sure she’ll have natural talent with music.” The fact that Kyoko said that rubbed Shuichi the wrong way initially, until he was reminded that he hadn’t said a word about what gender the child was. As he opened his mouth to question that, she had a response for him ready to go. “I happened to see the board you two have on your wall while I was speaking with your wife. You chose some lovely colors to decorate it with, might I add.”

“That…would explain it,” he said with a laugh, mentally noting that he’d need to thank Kaito and Maki for that, since the colors had been their choosing. “For a second I thought you’d been able to deduce that based on other things.”

“Sometimes, the best way to deduce something is by looking at the obvious.” She winked at him, before stepping into the room to grab about half of her stack of things to keep, coming out with her hands full and in need of someone opening the door to let her out. Since she was doing him such a huge favor, he was more than willing to fill that role, going so far as to help her carry what she couldn’t hold.

Once she was on her way and the reminder that the rest of the stuff would be gone the following day was given a second time, he was able to re-enter the house with the weight of solving that problem no longer on his back. If that was the only thing he’d need to deal with that day, he’d be set, but he had Kaede still inside waiting for him to make good on his promise of helping her with the weekly picture, and while that wasn’t a long task to complete it didn’t feel as fulfilling as making progress on the baby’s room did.

 _seventeen_.

It was the day of her next doctor’s appointment, and Kaede had woken up to being alone in the room, Shuichi not waking her up before he left for the day. He had sent her a message explaining that he’d been called to do some investigative work on a large case, and that he would meet her at the clinic when the time came for it, but as for getting there she’d have to find her own way and for that he was sorry. “Classic Shuichi, apologizing when something isn’t really his fault,” she said, listening to the message a second time to make sure she didn’t miss anything important in it. He didn’t say how he wanted her to get there, and while she knew that he meant ask someone for some assistance her immediate first thought was walking over by herself, and she laughed at the absurdity of the mental image of her walking that far of a distance in the middle of a cold snap while she didn’t have a coat that she could even zip up.

That was what inspired her to ask the person that she did for some help, because the moment she mentioned “shopping” and “girls only”, she knew that they’d be on board with the idea. Her plan was simple, she got to go out shopping with some friends and then have them take her to the clinic, where she’d meet Shuichi and go on with things like normal. Nothing seemed like it would throw it into disarray, and yet somehow it managed to all fall apart the moment she heard a knock at the front door. She had gotten ready in the time between getting confirmation that her shopping trip was a go and the knock, but when she got to the door and opened it, the cold immediately eating through the clothes she was wearing even though she was inside, she was left questioning if she’d even be able to do what she was planning on doing.

“As much as I can’t believe that you let that degenerate male _do_ this to you, I have to say that you’re making it look amazing,” Tenko told her in greeting, coming inside without any other fanfare, but the person that came in after her gave Kaede a big hug upon seeing her. “Isn’t that right, Himiko? Don’t you think she looks great?”

“She looks greater than great, if you want my honest opinion.” Breaking off her hug when she felt Kaede shiver from the still-open door blowing cold air on her, Himiko looked as bored as she usually did but she seemed to have high spirits at the moment. “I’m so happy that we keep getting invited to do things with her, she’s such a good person that’s having a good thing happen to her.”

Tenko nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with what her girlfriend had said. “It’s that much better of a thing because the baby’s a girl, you know. If it were a boy I don’t know how hands-on I’d want to be in all of this. I’d still be here, of course, but not as much as I am now. Gotta spoil that girl as much as I can!” She was starting to bounce up and down where she was standing, her excitement getting the better of her.

Noticing that, after shutting the door to try and have a chance of warming up before going outside, Kaede couldn’t help but smile at what she was seeing, even if some of what Tenko had just admitted did bother her deep down. “Hey now, at least you’d be accepting of the baby if she were a he, unlike certain other people we know,” she said, clasping her hands together in front of her stomach before letting them rest on top of it. “And anyway, I don’t know what I’d do without the two of you always being willing to help me out. You’ve given me so many cute things to wear, and you’ve gone shopping with me every time I’ve needed it, like today.”

“That reminds me, we have another box of things to give to you.” Himiko was looking at Kaede with a half-smile forming on her lips, something about what she’d remembered making her more excited than anything else so far. “You’ll never guess how we got these things this time, because it’s magic that did it.”

“Magic, huh? Sounds like I’ll love whatever’s in there, then.” It wasn’t hard to know where they kept getting the idea for the things they were giving her from, because everything she received was suspiciously similar to things she’d put on wish lists on different websites, but nothing looked to be exactly what she was dreaming of getting. Everything had its own flair to it, and that was made guessing where the items themselves were from harder than it would have been otherwise; that was why Kaede was honestly okay with playing along with Himiko’s insistence that they were magically-acquired. “Is it a bunch more shirts, or are there other things in there this time?”

“All we can get through our ‘magic’ connection are shirts, we keep telling you this,” Tenko answered, grabbing Himiko by the shoulders and pulling her towards her, only to let go and crouch down to whisper something into her ear. Based on the quiet gasp Himiko gave in response, whatever she’d said was something that Kaede felt she wanted to know, but she wasn’t going to ask to know it because it was clear she wasn’t supposed to know right then. “I think we’ll see if we can start getting more things for the baby, though, but you’ve got to promise me you’ll use them no matter what they say.”

Himiko was trying her hardest to resist laughing from what Tenko had said, and Kaede could tell that she was missing something entirely yet couldn’t do anything about it. “Of course we’ll use them, babies go through a lot of clothes, you know! Besides, I’ve worn everything you two have given me at least once, some things more than that, and you’ve given me some weird and oddly specific things.”

“My favorite one you’ve worn is the ‘future mage-in-training’ shirt, that one felt nice to see you in.” It was only fitting that Himiko liked that one best, because she had been the one to specifically hand it over as a gift, and that had been the hardest shirt for Kaede to explain to Shuichi when he’d seen her wearing it (even though he also knew it was a gift from Himiko). “But I’ve liked others too, we’ve given you a lot of great gifts.”

“Ha, you really have given me a bunch. But even better than the physical gifts has been your willingness to spend time with me, it’s nice to know I have friends around who will come hang out with me and do boring things to help me out.” That elicited an excited, happy squeal from Tenko, who almost knocked Himiko over in her rush to try and hug Kaede, and that hug ended up involving all of them as naturally Himiko wanted in on the action once she saw her what her girlfriend was doing.

There was one thing that they had to do before they left to go shopping, and it was at the insistence of the visitors, not anything that Kaede expected them to do. They wanted to look into the intended bedroom and see the progress being made on it, which aside from the floor being almost completely visible and the remaining books being stacked near the door, there wasn’t anything else that had been done. “I know that men assume they can prepare a room all on their own,” Tenko said, as she looked around at the bare walls and floor in need of a good washing, “but I’m starting to think that Shuichi doesn’t have a clue about what to do with this place. He needs some girl power to come in and take over.”

“O-oh, you don’t have to worry about that, I’m sure he’s got a plan for what he’s going to do!” Now, Kaede would have loved to tell Tenko that she was welcome to come help with setting up the room, but she knew that letting her help would result in nothing getting done because she and Shuichi would argue about whose way of doing things was better. That was also assuming that Shuichi wasn’t going to arrange for people to come help him anyway, and she knew that the people at the top of the list would be Kaito and Maki, and Tenko would not exactly work well with one of those two.

“Listen, Kaede, I know you believe in him, but maybe it would be best to have some who will put in some actual muscle doing the work? Just saying, you’re going to need this place sooner rather than later and waiting around for him to get his ass in gear isn’t exactly an option you have for much longer.” There was truth to what Tenko was saying, and she knew it, but she couldn’t let her boss her way around into getting to help out. “Keep me in mind for when he doesn’t ever do a thing, it’s all I’m saying.”

“I’ll help too,” Himiko added, sounding bored as always. “With my magic, we’ll be able to make this room perfect in no time at all. Furniture built, walls painted, everything set up for when you need it, just say the word and I can make it happen.”

Knowing that inviting Himiko to help would be even worse than inviting Tenko, but that one would come with the other regardless of who was invited, Kaede laughed at the offer and moved on with a gently-said “I’ll keep that in mind, thank you”. They could have spent all day in there talking about what to do about the room, but there were places they needed to go, things they needed to do, appointments that needed to be kept.

Shopping with the two was always a lovely experience, even though Kaede never expected them to buy something for her while they were out. She just wanted their opinions on what to get, as well as some moral support to keep her spirits up when she’d see not the prices of the things she wanted, but what size she needed to get in order to comfortably and realistically wear them. That was actually the problem that reared its ugly head when it came time to pick out a new jacket—in order to get one that fit properly and had room to be worn in the coming months, she was having to shop into much bigger sizes than she was willing to admit she’d need.

That was where having Tenko and Himiko in specific was great, because neither of them would allow for Kaede to feel bad about herself because of something like that. “Why are you upset that you’re getting something so big, huh? You’re a goddess, you’re creating life that just happens to be inside your body, you can’t be upset about that,” Tenko told her, something she needed to hear but didn’t want to accept in that moment. “It’s one of the perks of being female, you get to be strong and spoiled and bring new life into the world, and so what if it means you have to wear bigger clothes?”

“If you’re worried about people judging you for it, I’ll cast a spell on your clothes to make the sizes say they’re smaller than they are.” Himiko’s offer was genuinely-given, and it was just as appreciated as Tenko’s inspirational spiel, but hers was the one that Kaede would have preferred to make a reality. She hated seeing the tags on some of the things she had started to need to wear, and she knew that it would only be getting worse in the future, but the jacket was really taking the cake because even in the shirt size she’d been wearing, the jacket was too tight and could only zip up if she inhaled as deeply as she could and held it for as long as possible. This wasn’t a cheap purchase she was needing to make, and getting one that would last until the weather warmed up was necessary, which meant buying something with a number on the tag way larger than she ever thought she’d need.

As they were walking out of the store, the jacket and a few other things purchased between them all (because the two ladies were not going to let Kaede have to spend so much money when they were there to help), they stopped at the display in the front window, the mannequins there dressed up in the trendiest fashions aimed at pregnant women. “I’m sorry, but I think our method of dressing you up in clothes with sayings on them is a way better use of your time than if you felt like you needed to dress like _that_.” Tenko pointed to the closest mannequin, wearing tight clothes that looked constricting even on a plastic model. “Must be some degenerate male picking what’s in style, they sure do love their eye candy.”

“You might be right, and I couldn’t imagine choosing to dress like that every day when I can wear things like…” Kaede looked down at her current shirt, which was still exposed as she was wearing her old jacket rather than the new one, and frowned when she saw that it was completely blank except for a single pink heart painted on her stomach. “This one doesn’t exactly prove my point, it’s rather boring compared to some of the other ones I’ve got.”

“We forgive you, we know what point you wanted to make.” Her hand giving the mannequin an obscene gesture, Tenko started to walk out the door muttering something about how pregnancy shouldn’t be anything that men get control over, and that it should be all about the ladies and what they want. Himiko shook her head at what she heard but followed her out, leaving Kaede to look at the mannequin once more, in all its fashion-forward glory, and leave the store dwelling on something completely different about it than what her friend had taken issue with.

She wanted to look that cute, even if her choice in what to wear was less fashionable and more fun, but the perfectly-rounded bump that mannequin had was so far from possible that she couldn’t let herself get envious of it. She was meant to be the way she was because she was human and was actually growing, not a piece of plastic created to sell clothes that no one actually wanted. If she was to wear something that tight to her skin at this point, she wasn’t doing it because it was a fashion statement, but because she wanted to wear something and it wasn’t going to fit her any other way.

This was something she would have addressed with her friends, but she knew that they’d give her the same reminders that they did while shopping, that they’d help her if they could but that she needed to remember that she was creating life and that fact alone was amazing. Not everyone could or would do what she was doing, and she needed to not be so hard on herself about how she looked. When they got to the clinic to drop her off, Tenko made sure to tell her that she still was beautiful even if she was getting bigger, and that was enough to get her to start crying ugly tears over the whole ordeal. “Come on, Kaede, pull it together before you made me curse you to only ever be happy,” Himiko said, while Tenko tried to string a sentence together out of words of encouragement she didn’t know she’d need. “I don’t think there’s any reason for you to be crying right now.”

“Y-you’re right but I just…thank you both, that’s all I can say.” Tears freely falling from her eyes as she hugged them both, Kaede was at a loss as to what she could say right then to tell these two how much their support mattered. They were doing things for her that no one needed to be doing, and that was the power of their friendship.

As they left to go back to their own lives, she had to collect herself and carry her new bag of things inside the clinic, hoping that Shuichi would be waiting inside and that he’d be able to store her new clothes and her old jacket in their vehicle, while she could remove all tags off the new jacket and start wearing it. It wasn’t as cold as it had been that morning, but the chill was still freezing all of her exposed skin as well as the parts of her upper body that weren’t covered by her jacket, and she wished that she’d asked the cashier at the store to take the tags off the new one so she could wear it out.

In the process of opening the door to get inside, she found herself starting to shiver from the cold, which she figured would be a reaction that would go away quickly once she was in the waiting room. Through the whole check-in process she was still a bit shivery, her teeth clattering at least once when she was giving her name to the lady at the desk, but by the time she’d sat down she had warmed up for the most part and was in the process of switching jackets to make sure she didn’t get that cold again. By the time Shuichi walked in and saw her already waiting, she was wearing her new coat, pale pink and white and trimmed with plaid around the hems, and he came to her with a smile on his face and a compliment to give about how cute she looked.

She thanked him for the kind words and asked him to take the bag she had with her out, exactly as she’d planned to, but when she was handing everything off to him she stopped abruptly as what felt like a tiny shiver deep inside her tickled her core. “Did something happen?” he asked, grabbing the bag from her hand so she could pull it back to rest it right on the heart on her shirt. “Kaede, you’re worrying me, what’s going on?”

“I’m just cold, that’s all,” she lied, knowing that he’d be able to tell she was lying without having to ask anything else. He raised an eyebrow at her but said nothing further, taking the things out to the car and coming back with a measurable amount of worry in his eyes. She thought she knew what had just happened, and she didn’t want to tell him in case she was wrong about it. On one hand, she hadn’t actually eaten anything yet that day and might just have been hungry, but on the other, she might have just felt the baby fluttering inside her for the first time.

 _eighteen_.

The feeling of little butterflies deep down in her stomach came back a few times over the coming days, and it was hard for Kaede to not tell Shuichi what was going on whenever she’d feel them in his presence. He still didn’t believe a word of her saying that everything was okay, and in his mind he was going over several worst-case scenarios that were happening, but he went along with her little lie, knowing that she’d confess to it when she felt it was appropriate.

That time happened to be in the middle of the night, after he’d already fallen asleep and she was still trying to get in a comfortable position to do the same. She’d moved a pillow to being in between her legs, she was on her side for a couple minutes then flipping over restlessly, having to readjust where the pillow was before giving sleep a shot once more. There had been a few nights before where she’d struggled to fall asleep, but this was by far the worst with how nothing that she did felt like it would be good enough. As she was laying there, trying her hardest to just fall asleep in whatever position she was currently in, the idea that she’d never get to sleep that night crossed her mind, and she instinctively went to change how she was laying once more.

Once she’d flipped over again and was now facing where Shuichi was laying, his soft breathing audible in the otherwise quiet room, she sighed in defeat. “This is hopeless, I’m just not meant to be sleeping right now,” she mumbled to herself, scooting closer to where he was laying in case cuddling up to him would put her restless body at ease. Instead, what she got was the strongest fluttering in her stomach that she’d felt so far, a sensation so odd that it made her react by throwing the blankets off of herself and flip rapidly onto her back so she could see if that was something crawling on her or not.

“Can’t sleep, Kaede?” Shuichi’s voice asked, muffled by the blanket that she’d thrown on top of him in her panic. “Would you prefer it if I left the bed to give you more space?”

“No, I just…” Her hands moving over every inch of her stomach, Kaede couldn’t find a thing to blame the sensation on and knew that she had to come clean about things now. “She’s moving, that’s all. It’s kind of weird, but I’ll get used to it.”

The surprise in his voice when he spoke next was genuine, as after all of the horrible outcomes he’d envisioned the truth was actually a good thing. “You can feel her moving right now? May I, uh, try to get to feel her as well?” He had pulled the blanket off of his face and was moving to sit up in the bed, this news having shocked him to being wide awake. “I understand if you say no, but I’d like to know what it’s like.”

“I don’t think you’d be able to feel her, it wasn’t like a kick or anything.” In fact, Kaede knew that what she said was true, as in the time she’d been checking for any unwanted company crawling on her she’d felt another bit of movement inside her, but it hadn’t been something she could feel through the skin. “I promise I’ll let you know when that starts happening, but right now I guess I’m the only one who gets to feel her.”

Shuichi nodded, disappointed that she had given that answer but understanding that she couldn’t help it. He looked over at her with a solemn gaze, watching as she rolled back onto her side and began the game of adjusting herself to get comfortable once again. “I’ll be looking forward to when I get to feel her move, then,” he said, sliding back down into his spot on the bed and throwing her half of the blankets back onto her. “You try sleeping now, Kaede, it isn’t good for you to stay up this late.”

“I’m trying my best,” she replied, snuggling up behind him to see if it would work this time, now that she’d acknowledged the baby’s movements as being real. “For myself, and for our little one.” He gave a small laugh in return, feeling how close she was to his back due to the feeling of the pillow brushing against his legs. This closeness was lovely, but when she began thrashing around again it was enough to keep him up almost as long as she was.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: minor blood

_nineteen_.

There was a day where Shuichi came in contact with someone mid-investigation that was a coughing, sneezing mess, spreading germs all over the area they were in, which he had no choice but to interact with. He’d thought he’d done a good job of disinfecting himself before he went home that night, but when Kaede started complaining that her throat was sore and she wasn’t feeling exactly well, he knew that he hadn’t done a good enough job, and felt guilty that he’d acted as a carrier of some sickness to the one person he knew who didn’t need to be getting sick.

That day she was just complaining, and the next she was actually presenting symptoms of being sick, from a cough that didn’t seem too bad to a bit of a runny nose. She wasn’t happy about being under the weather, but she wasn’t letting it bother her; the only thing different about her that day was that she didn’t do much more than lay in bed, choosing to rest over even playing her piano until late in the afternoon, and then she wasn’t playing for very long before she was back to bed. He hated seeing her miserable, but he knew that it couldn’t be worse than a common cold, and that she’d be back to normal in a few days.

In some ways he was right, as it only was a few days of her being genuinely sick that they had to endure, but in others he missed the mark completely. By the time it had been a week since she’d first mentioned her sore throat, she was finished with her sniffles and had most of her energy back, but the cough had only gotten worse and had gone from being a minor inconvenience to a hacking, time-stopping nuisance she was dealing with far too often. “I think I’m going to cough my lungs out if I don’t stop soon,” she told him after having to catch her breath after a rough bout of coughing, her voice hoarse from the strain her throat was going through with the cold. “That, or I’m going to hurt myself. Can’t exactly double over when I’m coughing right now.”

“Don’t worry, we’re doing all we can to get this taken care of, you’ll be better before you realize it.” That felt like he was saying empty words, the advice the doctor having given them when he’d frantically called them looking for help was to take some gentle medications and have lots of rest, but Shuichi wasn’t going to question the advice of a professional who had probably seen hundreds to thousands of pregnant women with colds over time. He did want to look for more solutions but he didn’t trust most of what he could find in a simple search online, and properly dragging Kaede to the doctor was the last resort.

She woke up the next morning with her cough having gotten even more intense, causing her pain to even be breathing with how strained her already-decimated stomach muscles had gotten from the coughing. Even still, her attitude towards it all was positive, acting like it wasn’t all that bad but she was miserable every time she talked about how she felt. It happened to be the day of their next weekly update picture, and she had to put on a brave face to make it not look like she was sick when it was taken, yet the popped blood vessels around her eyes from how hard she’d been coughing were clearly noticeable in the picture. It was still easier to play it off like nothing was really wrong, even when they got several calls that night from concerned friends wondering what was going on, why she looked like she wasn’t feeling great, and if there was anything they could do to help.

Had things not decided to get worse than they were, denying that anything was wrong would have worked out in their favor, but that night as they were preparing to go to bed, Kaede found herself in the throes of a coughing fit that had her on the floor, hunched over with her arms wrapped around her stomach for support as she kept throwing herself forward with every cough. Shuichi was standing at her side the entire time, watching her wide-eyed as the coughing got to the point that she started crying out of exhaustion and out of how much it was hurting her. “Maybe it’s time that we go get this looked at by someone,” he said to her as he came down to sit with her, as the fit began to let her out of its chokehold. “I know you don’t want to, but Kaede…I don’t think this is getting better on its own.”

“I just want to be done being sick,” she replied, showing pain in how she swallowed after she’d spoken as she turned to him with her tearful eyes. “Everything hurts right now, Shuichi, everything from my head down. I don’t know what else there is to do exce—” She got stopped mid-sentence by another cough, this one the most concerning yet as with it came droplets of what was undeniably blood.

His eyes, already wide from what he’d been watching, nearly crossed as he found himself staring at the blood that was now on the floor between them. She was still coughing, but not with as much force as the one that had stopped her from speaking, and all he could do was stare not at her, but what had come from how sick she’d gotten. “We’re going, right now,” he said, shakily getting to his feet and looking around for the closest bag of any kind for her to have handy in case more blood came up. “I can’t do this, especially not with you being pregnant. If you’re coughing up blood, something’s very, very wrong.”

“It’s nighttime, where are you going to even take me?” she weakly asked in a break between coughs, slowly coming to her feet only for the coughing to start again. In the time it took for him to run into the bathroom and grab an empty bag, she’d coughed up more blood, this time into her hand, and she was beginning to visibly panic over it.

“No, no, stay calm, panicking isn’t going to do you any good!” Thrusting the bag at her, she had it in her hand just in time to start coughing up blood once more, which she got into the bag rather than anywhere else. “Let’s get your hand washed up, then we’ll go. I’m sure they’ll be able to get you the help you need at the emergency room, since this is the textbook definition of an emergency.”

There was no way for her to protest, and so after she wasn’t carrying blood in the palm of her hand and they were both wearing jackets and shoes (the fact that they were both in pajamas would have to be forgiven by anyone who saw them), they were on their way to the closest hospital that he knew wouldn’t be too busy. On the drive she was coughing every few seconds, sometimes harder than others, and if it hadn’t been for him grabbing that bag the whole passenger’s side dashboard would have been speckled with droplets of the blood coming up out of her throat. Once they were there and into the waiting room, the line of people waiting ahead of them was rather long for it being late at night, but the sound of other people’s coughing was echoing through the room, a symphony that Kaede was able to add to with ease.

The line went quickly, and when they got to the counter they were greeted with a demand for a name, identification, and a free arm for a wristband. While Shuichi was fumbling through his pockets of his jacket to find where his wallet, which held everything for him and Kaede, was hidden away, she was trying her best to answer the questions she could. “Would I be in there under my married name, do you think?” she asked, to which the receptionist gave her a blank stare. “Oh, okay, it would be either Kaede Akamatsu, or Kaede Saihara, if you can’t find me under one.”

“I think it would be the same as what name you’re under at the clinic,” Shuichi said after finding his wallet and getting her identification card out, handing it over to the receptionist who took it and shoved it back in a matter of seconds. Next came the wristband, which was tightly put around Kaede’s wrist, and while she was looking at it to see the answer to what name she had in the system (it was the second option, which made sense and matched with what Shuichi had guessed), he was having to answer questions from the receptionist about what brought them in right then.

Even though there was the active coughing-up of blood happening, it wasn’t treated like as much of an emergency as it seemed to be in his head, and they were told to sit down and wait to be called back. The waiting area was crowded, but there were a few seats open against the wall; the only issue was that they were separated by people sitting in between them. Since it was important that she, as a sick and noticeably pregnant woman, got to sit down, Shuichi decided that he’d just stand in front of her until one of the seats on either side of hers opened up.

“Would you care for this spot, sir?” the man sitting on her left asked, his voice gruff and somewhat condescending as he spoke, but his intentions seemed to be pure. “I could move to allow for you to be next to your companion, if you desire.”

“Er, thank you for the offer, and if it’s not too much trouble I would appreciate it.” The man stood up and moved to the next seat over, opening the one directly next to Kaede up, and even though there was a bit of animal fur left behind Shuichi wasn’t going to be picky about being given somewhere to sit. He turned to the man to thank him again, and saw that he was cradling what should have been his arm in his lap, but instead of seeing an arm all he could see was a long, plastic tube. “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened to you? That doesn’t look like something that warrants a visit to the hospital.”

Laughing brashly, the man held up the tube and showed that his hand was stuck inside it, but more obvious than that was the knife handle sticking out of it, dried blood covering the inside of the tube and the knife itself. “I was informed that someone had tampered with one of my cages at home, and in the process of inspecting for the tampering I stumbled upon a blade, which became lodged in my wrist when I lost my balance and slid my arm into the tube. Thankfully it was I who sustained the injury, and not one of my precious creatures.”

“That’s an oddly positive way to look at something like that.” Already unsure of how he hadn’t noticed the tube before the seat switch, Shuichi found himself staring at it for a while, until Kaede started coughing again and his attention was drawn to making sure she was okay. “Look, at least not everyone here came in because they’re sick, I’d hate if we were waiting here and you were only getting more viruses to fight off.”

She tried her best to smile while coughing, but it was a split-second of success before she was giving her dry, hacking cough that drowned out everything else going on nearby. The man, hearing that it was the woman he’d been sitting next to coughing so intensely, tapped Shuichi on the shoulder to get his attention once more, then motioned towards a water fountain on the other side of the waiting room. “There are paper cups near it, if you want to go get her something to drink. I will do the honor of holding your seat in your absence, in case anyone dares try to sneak in on your territory.”

“Oh, uh, I’ll go get her some water then, thank you.” Whoever this man was, he seemed to be rather polite despite his dark clothes and rough voice, and Shuichi found himself feeling very thankful that someone like him was there that night. He got up and went to get some water, filling the paper cup up as much as he could before carrying it back to Kaede, who he could hear coughing the whole time he was gone. She seemed to appreciate the water once she had it, but the process of drinking it clearly pained her, something that made him feel worse about how sick she’d gotten.

“My apologies if I’m intruding, but that cough sounds like it should have been treated days ago.” The man was watching her drink her water, a view that was partially blocked once Shuichi had sat back down, and he seemed concerned at what was going on. “Is there any reason why she’s gotten this ill? Was it sudden? Are you in a moment of financial hardship? Is this a normal thing for her?”

“We’ve been trying to treat it at home but the remedy we were given cured everything except the cough,” Shuichi explained, still watching Kaede struggle to swallow all the water without looking like it was hurting her more than it should have been. “The doctor I spoke to told me that it would potentially be harmful if she took cough medicine, which is why she hadn’t and probably why we’re here.” He knew that the reason for that was something to do with ingredients that would not mesh well with a developing child, but he felt that was more detail than he needed to get into with this stranger. “I’m certain that whenever she gets seen, she’ll be given something that’ll cure her in no time.”

Sputtering the last drops of her water due to another cough wracking her body, Kaede handed the cup back to Shuichi and leaned back in the chair, only to fall forward with the force of subsequent coughs. “I can tell that she’s not doing well, I wish you both all the best in her healing as well as the upcoming arrival of your baby,” the man said, resting his tubed arm on his lap once more. “That was the one thing I got out of her in your absence, that she’s worried of any effects this may have on the child she’s carrying.”

“I’m positive it’ll all be fine, we would have been warned by the doctor if there was any chance of something going wrong.” This man’s concern was appreciated in such a stressful time, even though he wasn’t doing much more than be someone to talk to, but there was something about him that made Shuichi wary of continuing the conversation. He was sitting there with his arm in a rodent tube with a knife stuck in his wrist in it, that wasn’t exactly an everyday occurrence. “Thank you again for being the person sitting over here when we showed up, you’ve been nothing but polite this whole time so far.”

“After sitting here two hours because my arm isn’t pouring blood, it is nothing short of a miracle that I’m still this composed.” He chuckled, making Shuichi flinch at the mention of how long he’d been waiting to be seen. If they had to wait that long, who knew how much more blood Kaede could cough up. “I appreciate your kindness, though. You were the first to take a seat and not yell to clear room around it in a while, and I was admittedly afraid that you would be barking orders at me, not having your lovely lady barking coughs.”

Right as Shuichi intended to reply, a voice from by the reception desk called out a couple of names, one at a time. The first ones were answered by people towards the front of the room, but the final name on the list was responded to by the man standing up, giving a respectful bow towards the pair. “I shall take my leave, I once again wish you all the best, and let’s hope that the next time your paths cross that of Gundham Tanaka, it is under better circumstances,” he said, earning a smile from Shuichi in return, before he was walking up towards the reception area.

“That guy seemed nice, hope his wrist and his animals are all okay,” Kaede whispered, her voice unable to raise above the volume level she was speaking at due to her coughing. “I’m glad I’m not here because I hurt myself, can you imagine the shame I’d feel sitting in here if I was hurt and pregnant? It would be, like, the worst thing ever.”

“Eh, I think you being sick and pregnant might be just as bad, at least injuries tend to be accidents.” The worry that they were being judged by anyone else there in the waiting room because of the total parts of her condition was resting on Shuichi’s mind for a moment, before it was replaced by the fear that perhaps what Kaede was afraid of, about her being sick being harmful to their baby girl, might have had some reality to it. If it was true, then Shuichi felt he’d have no one to blame but himself, for not disinfecting things better, for not taking better care of her when she started feeling unwell, for waiting until things got horrible to take drastic action.

It was close to an hour later that they were taken back, the coughing not subsiding even slightly in the time they were waiting. The first nurse that helped do the check-in process was friendly, even if he was clearly tired after a constant flow of patients going through, and he made sure that his part of the ordeal went quickly. There was only one hiccup in his approach, and that was that he was so focused on getting results that he hadn’t actually noticed anything about the patient he was dealing with, so when he asked her if there was any chance she might be pregnant, he was given two hollow laughs in return before they simultaneously told him that yes, yes there was a chance. He got a laugh out of it for himself and moved them right along, into a room in a crowded wing of the hospital, other nurses bustling in and out of rooms all along the way.

There they waited for over another hour, Kaede laying as comfortably as she could in the room’s bed while Shuichi sat with his head in his hands in one of the chairs. Every time she coughed he could feel his worries growing, until he was certain that this was where she was going to die and everything he loved was going to be stripped away from him by something that he’d carelessly caused. The knock at the door from the next nurse was a welcome sound, but when a frazzled-looking woman came in, her shoulders hunched forward and her eyes cast down, they were left wondering if something bad had just happened to her.

“H-hello there,” she greeted, closing the door behind her after she’d come inside to keep any people walking by from being able to see in. “I’m N-nurse Tsumiki, I’ll be in and out of here until we can get you sent on your way. We’re a bit short-handed on doctors tonight but…I’ll try my best to help you!”

“You mean we’ve been waiting this long just for there not to be a doctor to see us?” Shuichi asked, raising his head just in time for the nurse to jump back at his words, not even caring that he’d taken on a kind tone to say them. “Please, I’m not angry about this, I just want to know if that’s the case.”

She nodded, trembling in fear of what reaction her honesty might get. “I’m…I’m really sorry about that, we had an incident on a main-hospital floor earlier that messed everything up and, um, please don’t be upset that you have to deal with me. I’m good at my job, I really am.” There was only one way she’d be able to prove her words to be true, and that would be to come up with a way to help Kaede, who had started coughing again and was hunched over in the bed, her hands gripping the rail on one side while she was spitting blood onto the front of her pajama shirt. “Oh no, that’s not a good sign, coughing up blood could mean so many possible things! Let’s get right to…finding out what it might be.”

And so after a night of testing (going right for the worst options and eliminating them until everything left wasn’t nearly as scary), which was constantly interrupted by the nurse needing to check on other patients on the floor, they had a lot of thrown-out reasons for the blood but not a solid reason for why she was coughing it up like she was. The conclusion that the nurse came to was that she’d merely strained her throat to the point of making it raw, and the best course of action to take regarding that was medicating safely but aggressively until the cough subsided completely. She made sure to double and triple check that the medicine she prescribed was safe for someone who was pregnant to take before she actually had the prescription written, but, as she noted, they could just go to the store and get it if they could wait until morning.

But she didn’t merely leave them out to suffer until then, because she snuck an extra dose of the medication into the room and handed it to Shuichi for safekeeping, after giving Kaede one to take then. It didn’t clear her cough up right away, but by the time they were able to leave and head home, she was coughing a lot less. By morning the cough _had_ come back, and that was where the extra dose came in handy, until he was able to go get more of it from the store after getting some actual sleep. She wasn’t immediately cured, but she was much better off than she had been even the night before.

_twenty._

A few days later was Maki’s birthday, and she hadn’t asked her friends to do anything to mark the occasion, nor did she expect anyone except her husband to really remember that the day in question had any importance. Knowing that this was what she would be expecting, Kaede and Shuichi decided that they would, in fact, do something for her to celebrate her big day, even if she wasn’t aware they were planning it. With how sick Kaede had gotten, it had been hard to really plan anything, but a last-minute reservation at a somewhat decent restaurant had been placed and they tried to pull the strings to get Maki and Kaito to show up at the right time without either of them knowing what was going on.

Therefore, it was quite the surprise when Shuichi messaged Kaito that afternoon asking him what his plans were, and he heard back that they were planning to go to that very restaurant for a date night together, at about the same time the reservation had been made for. That made getting them there much easier, but at the cost of them already being prepared to eat there rather than having the location even come as a shock. Still, when all four of them were standing in the entryway, Maki was rather displeased that she’d been roped into some birthday celebration she hadn’t asked for, but she went along with it because everyone else, especially Kaito thinking that he’d made it happen himself, was okay with it.

“I’ll get you all back for this,” she threatened as they were walked to the table that had been reserved, taking the seat closest to the door for herself and letting everyone else pick accordingly. “I was expecting a quiet dinner with Kaito, if that’s even possible. Not a meal with the two of you as well.”

“Sorry, it’s just been a while since we last all did something together and I thought maybe you’d forgive the birthday thing for that reason,” Kaede said, sitting directly across from where she’d sat, putting her elbows down on the table and leaning her head onto her hands. “Like, it’s been a long while. Was New Year’s actually the last time all four of us were in the same place at once?”

After thinking for a moment, Maki nodded. “Sure was. We’ve been giving you two your space, first because Kaito can’t behave himself around you both, then it was because we’d heard you were sick and—hey, how did that end for you, you looked miserable in that last picture you posted.”

“I, um, guess it ended okay? We had to get some outside help involved, I was coughing so much that my throat tore itself open or something and that wasn’t a fun night, let me tell you.” With her head still balanced on her hands, Kaede tilted it slightly as she smiled across the table. “I’m sure Shuichi remembers it better than I do, I ended up kind of really drugged up after that.”

“So she was coughing up blood, is that right?” Kaito asked, looking not at Kaede but at Shuichi, who told him that that was indeed the case. “Ha, that’s not all that bad. Take it from someone who’s done it a time or two, the blood itself isn’t what sucks, it’s the taste in your mouth once it’s gone. But I’d expect a lady to not be so strong when it comes to blood, of course she’d medical attention for that.”

“As women see more blood than men do, I expect you to take that back right now.” The insult hadn’t even been aimed at her and yet Maki was jumping in to defend against the boneheaded thing Kaito had just said. “Not only that, but I’m sure that her coughing up blood while sick was concerning enough, but adding in that she’s as pregnant as she is and it might have been scarier than you realize for them.”

“Whoa there, I’m not…well, I am pretty pregnant, but don’t make it sound like I’m almost about to pop or something.” Awkwardly laughing, Kaede sat up tall and brought a single hand down to rest on the side of her stomach, somewhere that still ached from the strain of her coughing despite not having been seriously coughing in about a day. “Besides, we just overreacted about how bad things were, me having that blood come up wasn’t a sign of anything being wrong except having a little cough, it was no big deal!”

“I wouldn’t say it was an overreaction, but we could have handled it on our own if we’d known what we needed to look for.” The medicine he’d had to go to the store to get was something right at the front of the shelf, and he knew he would have been able to find it had he known that he could be looking for it. But that was in the past, and as long as Kaede was okay Shuichi was going to try not to hold himself accountable for what had gone wrong. “It wasn’t a fun time but we know what to do if it happens again, to us or to anyone we know.”

Kaito was still grumbling something about how coughing up blood wasn’t that big of a deal, to anyone, and Maki chose to take care of him by smacking him upside the head, calling him an idiot as her hand connected with his over-spiked hair. “Watch it, and I’m not an idiot! How many times do I have to remind ya of that, Maki Roll? Birthday or not, you don’t get to call me names just because you don’t agree with me!”

“I wish I’d known you’d never grow out of your man-centric thinking, I could have done so much better than you in my life,” she coldly said, bringing her hand back to in her lap as she listened to him try and spit out some kind of response about how she was wrong. “Don’t bother, you’ve always been like this and I doubt it’ll ever stop.”

“C’mon, why’s it always about how I’ll never change when you haven’t changed either, you’re still mean to me when I’m trying my best to please you! Always calling me names, or treating me like I’m dumb, don’t ya think that grates on a guy’s spirit after a while? I’m really trying my best for you, Maki Roll, it’s just that my best doesn’t seem to be good enough for you!” He was almost yelling, his voice raising to the point that people at other tables were looking in their direction, something that would be mortifying if the person causing it wasn’t oblivious to the volume of his outbursts. “I love you, but you’ve got to lower your standards if we’re still gonna make this work.”

“My standards haven’t changed an inch since I first fell in love with you, you’re the one slipping below that line on your own terms.” Maki’s face was completely neutral, her anger well-hidden because she recognized that they were in public and that she didn’t want to cause a scene like he was choosing to do. “Think about your actions next time, Kaito. Now choose to apologize to them for what you said, before I make you do it.”

He muttered something under his breath, but turned to the couple across the table with a semi-sheepish look on his face. “Sorry that I’m making your problems seem like less than they are. I guess I wasn’t feeling like believing that it was possible for them to be as bad as you said, but I know now that I have to accept your word on the matter. Have to let the experts have their time to talk, right?”

“Wouldn’t call either of us experts on the matter, but you’re right.” Even though it was Shuichi who decided to accept the apology verbally, he was looking at Kaede’s reaction and speaking for her as well. She was nodding along with what Kaito had said, and seemed to be beaming when she heard him refer to them as experts on what they’d been through. “We’re just somehow managing to get through everything, one day at a time. There’s a lot coming up in our lives in these next couple of months, you know. This just became something that was stopping us from focusing on any of that.”

“Like the room, correct?” Maki asked, getting dual nods in return. “Thought so. I might’ve heard a thing or two about how that place is still in need of a lot of work before anyone will be sleeping in there. What are you going to do at this point, just hope that someone offers to fix it up out of the goodness of their heart?”

“It’s next on the priority list, trust me,” Shuichi said, still looking at Kaede as he spoke. “We have it figured out, that’s what most of my free time will be spent working on over the next few weeks, so that it’s ready for the—”

“Shh, don’t tell them _that_ part!” Raising a hand to try and cover Shuichi’s mouth before he could say whatever came next, Kaede had gotten almost as loud as Kaito had been beforehand and once again people were turning their attention towards the table. “I mean, they’ll know first but not right now, okay?”

“—right, sorry Kaede. Didn’t think you wanted that to stay secret.” He dodged her hand when it came towards him, although he did respect her message of keeping quiet, and when he added to his statement, his tone had softened and felt less confident than it had been before. “Anyway, I intend on having that done by the end of the month, no later. Kaito, you’ll be helping me with it still, won’t you be?”

Blinking a couple times when he heard his name get offered up, Kaito puffed out his chest and replied, “Of course I will be! When it comes to preparing mini Kaede’s room, look no further than to Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, to take care of everything!”

“Why am I not surprised that he’s been roped into helping,” Maki muttered, before continuing, “and why am I not surprised that I’ll be there too, probably. Three pairs of hands are better than two, especially when the two you’ve already got are rather careless.”

“Um, excuse me, four pairs of hands are better than three, you mean! I’ll be helping too, as much as I can, even if it’s not much.” Kaede smiled, despite Shuichi’s almost horrified expression because of what she’d said. “I’m not going to sit around and make everyone else do all the work, I can help, even if it’s just a little!”

If anyone was going to give a rebuttal, their time was cut short due to the server finally coming to their table, and the focus went from their conversation to properly ordering drinks and meals. Once they were left alone, they tried to jump back into what they’d been talking about but the mood had changed entirely, and there was no way they could go back to scolding Kaede for wanting to help when they’d been interrupted, as it would seem more rude than anything at that point. Their conversation steered away from baby talk after a while, getting into normal, everyday discussion, talking about work and life in general, but occasionally the baby thing would be brought back up in full force for a moment.

The biggest takeaways from what they talked about were that Maki was still happy in her particular line of work, while Kaito was still doing space-related things while never actually leaving the ground, which matched well with Shuichi’s stories of solving small crimes in the area and Kaede’s talk of performing at small concerts here and there, but not too much anymore. She did seem a bit distracted when she was asked about how long she’d be performing for in the future, never quite answering the question, but no one could blame her as she might not have thought about it. As for when a certain person started theorizing about when another child might get added into the mix, that was hastily pushed past without acknowledging a word he’d said with anything but flat nos around the table, because they all knew what he was implying and everyone knew it wasn’t happening.

Once they’d been given their meals the conversation fell to silence, everyone focusing on what they were eating more than they were talking. But as they finished, one by one, the talking picked up again, this time more about why they were there than anything else. “I really wish the three of you had let me know you were planning to take me out tonight,” Maki said, idly playing with part of her hair as she tried not making eye contact with any of the others. “Not that I would have approved of it had I known, but the warning would have been appreciated.”

“And that right there is why we didn’t tell you. Or…tell Kaito, actually.” Noticing that she was trying not to have to look at them, Shuichi decided that he’d focus on the man next to her instead. “The fact that we planned to bring you both here, and he planned to bring you here on his own, should tell you that we all know the kind of place you like, Maki. That, and that we want to celebrate your birthday with you.”

“It’s just another day, there’s no reason to make a big deal of it. Birthdays don’t matter once you’re our age, you guys know this.” She spoke over whatever it was that Kaito was trying to say in agreement with Shuichi, deeming it unimportant to anything else going on. “Tell me one good thing that’s happened on any birthday for any of us since reaching adulthood.”

“I can answer that one for you,” Kaede cut in, pushing her chair back and standing up from the table, walking around to stand behind Maki. “I mean, it was on Shuichi’s birthday that I told him I was pregnant, so that’s something good that’s happened.”

She wasn’t able to see the unamused look on Maki’s face because of where she was standing, but she could certainly hear how she didn’t care for that answer in her voice. “Depends on your definition of ‘good’, I suppose.”

“It was the best thing that could have happened that day, pretty sure.” She laughed, setting her hand on the top of Maki’s head and giving her a couple playful pats before backing up and looking around the restaurant. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I, uh, don’t think that what I ate is settling well with me and I’d, you know, rather not get sick in front of you all.”

“Kaede, are you going to be okay?” Shuichi asked, moving to get up as well, but she waved for him to stay seated. “Please, if you’re not feeling well, maybe we should finish up here and go home so you can rest.”

She shook her head, still trying to keep him down in his seat. “No, I’ll just be gone for a moment, promise! I’m mostly fine, I’m sure, but I’d rather be safe than sorry and not be a total embarrassment to our whole group!” He didn’t seem to want to buy what she was saying, but chose not to fight her on it, and so she was allowed to get away from the table without incident.

“You don’t believe that she’s okay, do you?” When Maki was given the answer that no, he did not think it one bit, she was the one trying to get up to follow Kaede then, but she was directed to stay there. “So you don’t believe her, but you don’t want me to check on her? Whatever, I guess.”

“If she isn’t fine we’ll find out soon enough, I’d rather you not chase her down to make sure everything’s okay, not when we’re here for your birthday.” His legs were itching to move, but Shuichi knew that him going to check on Kaede wouldn’t work, and the only person at the table able to do the job would be Maki, yet he had faith that whatever it was Kaede was doing—because he was almost certain that she was fine and planning something else—would work best if it wasn’t interrupted. It was then, while sitting there resisting trying to sleuth out what her real intentions were, that he had an idea of his own: “Say, why don’t we go ahead and order something as a proper dessert for all of us to share? It’s a special occasion, and my treat, so…”

“Even if Maki Roll here says no, I am completely down with dessert split four ways!” Slamming his hands on the table, knocking over an empty cup and causing a clanging noise as it hit the other cups that were still standing, Kaito seemed altogether too excited at the prospect of free dessert, and his enthusiasm was enough to get a server to check on them and bring menus by for them to order what they wanted.

On the other side of the restaurant, near the bathrooms but with zero intention of going in them at the moment, Kaede had cornered a different server and was laying out her plan to him. “It’s my friend’s birthday and she really needs to lighten up about things, so I was thinking a round of dessert for all of us,” she explained, her hands coming to her cheeks as she envisioned how happy everyone would be when they each got a sweet treat, thanks to her. “I already told you where we’re sitting, so can you ring in, hm, one of each dessert you have on the menu? That sounds like it’d be good enough.”

The server she was speaking with wanted nothing more to get back to his own tables, so he told her he’d do the task and went on his way, leaving her to decide what to do then. That had taken far too little time, if she went back to the table her lie would have been called out for everyone by the most observant of the people there, and so that meant she needed to go make her disappearance more believable. On the off chance that they did decide to check on her, she decided that it would be best to hide out in the bathroom after all, even though she felt fine and had zero reason to actually go in there.

She must have lost track of time while hiding, or the kitchen was quick on delivering what she’d ordered, because after what felt like only a couple minutes she heard the familiar call of her name from a voice she’d heard it from many times, accompanied by knocks on the door. “Kaede, you better explain yourself right this instant,” Maki was demanding, her fist sounding angrier than her voice was. “What is with all the food we just received?”

“Um, I can explain it as we go back to the table,” she replied, opening the door to see Maki’s furious face and narrowly missing being hit by Maki realizing that hitting Kaede would not be an appropriate course of action. She sheepishly smiled as she stared at the fist being held dangerously close to her face, which was dropped as they began walking. “I figured that I could do something to help you celebrate, but it had to be something that we all could do. My first thought was ordering drinks, but I, well, really can’t do that and I knew that one round of drinks could turn into more, so I chose dessert instead. That’s okay though, isn’t it?”

“Sure it’s okay, except for the fact that your husband ordered us all something to share, so now we have more than any of us could ever need.” Now Maki sounded just as unamused as she had before, but at least she wasn’t angry as Kaede started laughing at how she and Shuichi had both had similar ideas for what to do. “The two of you should have communicated that better, but at least you have some extras to take with you, because none of it is coming home with me and Kaito. None of it.”

Kaede was able to curb her laughter long enough to get a response out, which was only said because of the context in which they’d ordered the desserts. “We bought it for you, so really you should—”

“None. Of. It.”

“—and I guess we’re taking all the extras home, then! You really convinced me!” Her laughter kicking up again, Kaede was completely fine with having to be responsible for whatever leftover desserts there were, as when she’d originally looked at the menu to see what there was there hadn’t been a single one she didn’t think would be anything but delicious. That might have been the first genuine craving for something she’d had the whole time she’d been pregnant, but she didn’t think too much of it because it was a special occasion and it wasn’t every day that she got to have dessert with friends, as well as get to take more of it home.

When they got back to the table, she had to explain herself to the men but they took it just as well as Maki did, even if Kaito seemed a bit saddened by the fact that he wasn’t going to get any of the extras for himself. They all worked together to make a small dent in the overall mountain of dessert there at the table, but there were a fair amount of containers filled to take the rest of it for later. It was while they were boxing the last bits that Kaede gave a quiet yelp over something, and everyone’s attention turned to her, while she was pulling Shuichi’s hand away from the box he was closing to set it low on her stomach. “I swear she just kicked hard enough that you might actually feel it,” she explained, giving a rather solid justification for her reaction. “Hold your hand right there for a bit, see if she does it again.”

“And let me guess, if she does do it again, you’re going to push him aside and give us a chance to feel as well, huh?” Kaito asked, his voice brimming with excitement. “I’d love to get to have mini Kaede kicking my hand tonight, I’ve only been dreaming of getting to have that bond with her for months now!”

“Maybe a different time, I’d want Maki to feel before you, just because it’s her birthday and all that, but that’s only if there’s anything to feel.” Her hand was resting on top of Shuichi’s, holding it in the exact place she could have sworn she’d felt the strongest kick so far, but after several minutes of being in position there was zero proof that it had happened. She felt bad for getting everyone’s attention for nothing, and was just about to apologize when the familiar feeling of a little foot (or a hand, it might’ve been a punch) hit that same spot, right underneath their fingers.

“That’s by far the strangest thing I’ve ever experienced,” Shuichi admitted, his fingers feeling like they were tingling in the aftermath of feeling that movement. “It’s something like this that reminds me how real she actually is, and that someday soon she’ll be able to do that where we can see it.”

Hoping for another demonstration was nothing more than wishful thinking, but Maki was fine with not having to endure feeling a kick right then, or ever if she was being honest. The whole thing was proving something she’d said wrong and she didn’t care for it; after all, she’d been the one to ask if anything good had ever happened on someone’s birthday, and there was a father feeling his baby move for the first time.

 _twenty-one_.

At the next appointment they went to, after addressing the concerns about the cold Kaede had suffered through and if there were any potential lasting effects it might have caused (which the doctor was certain there wouldn’t be), they were informed that they would start having to come in every two weeks or so, as opposed to the once-a-month schedule they’d been on so far. It was a milestone that marked how close they were getting to the end of their journey, but there was a more important one coming the following week, which would mark the end of the second trimester and the start of the third. All things considered, it didn’t feel like it had been that long, but they were cautioned that the longest part of pregnancy was yet to come.

“Please, if I could get through all of what I’ve already been through, I know I can get through the rest of this with no problems at all,” Kaede confidently said, looking at Shuichi for him to back her words up. “Especially with you by my side, together we make the perfect team. We’re like partners on a duet, except the duet we’re performing is our baby.”

“That’s an odd way to phrase that, but I agree that we make a great team together.” There were a lot of things that he wouldn’t have thought to do had she not suggested them, and he knew that there were others that she wouldn’t have done had he not been there to complete them. “We’ll take this one step at a time and make it through everything, no matter what.”

Their positivity was refreshing to anyone there at the clinic who heard it, and that was a fact they were told with every visit, but this time the doctor said nothing on the matter and instead suggested that when they schedule one of the following appointments, they keep something already scheduled in mind. That took Kaede by surprise, as she hadn’t had any clue anything was scheduled past their current date, but Shuichi thanked him for the reminder and told her not to worry about what he was referring to, it wasn’t anything that she needed to concern herself with.

Curiosity began to eat at her, but she knew that asking him to explain himself would give her a response that came with avoiding the point entirely that would try to get her to forget what she’d asked about in the first place. She wasn’t going to let him trick her like that, so she kept silent about things and tried her best to remember what it was that she needed to ask him about the next time it came up. But when they went to the desk to schedule appointments, she blanked completely on the whole thing and just went along with the recommended dates that were offered up to them.

Thankfully though, Shuichi knew that she was going to be curious and knew that she’d forgotten what was going on based on how she hadn’t yet said a thing about it. It wasn’t until they were comfortably home that he brought it up to her, watching her take her spot at her piano and clearing his throat to tell her he had something to say before she started playing. “I’m sure you want to know what the doctor was referring to today, and I suppose now’s as good a time as any to tell you what it is,” he said, seeing her sit up straighter and look back at him over her shoulder. “I, uh, did some research like I told you I would and found an interesting way we can see her again before she’s born. It’ll be a bit different than the way we’ve seen her before, but it’ll be a good thing for us both. You weren’t supposed to find this out until the day of, but it’s exciting enough that I can forgive you knowing now.”

“We’re going to get to see her again?” she repeated, her heartbeat picking up at the news. “I was ready to not see her little face again until I was holding her in my arms, but if you’re serious about this I can totally go for getting to see her before that!”

He chuckled, enjoying seeing her so excited about something he’d wanted to do for her for so long. “I’m definitely serious, Kaede. This was one thing you requested that I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do or not, but doing it’s a lot easier than I expected it to be. It’ll be at the beginning of next month, but that’s fine because the week we do that’s the week before we…” He trailed off, his whole body turning towards the open door to the second bedroom, on which no work had been done despite him saying it would be. “Right. I need to get Kaito over here so we can get moving on that before everyone’s here to see it.”

“I still don’t know why we’re inviting people over just to see the room, when I know that there’s a perfectly bigger place for us to have that party. Why did I tell them that doing it here was okay in the first place?” She was referring to the baby shower that Tenko and Himiko had decided they were going to hold, mostly done as a “take that” to the men from Tenko, because she still wanted to do work on the room and hadn’t once been mentioned in discussions about it. She had decided that if she couldn’t do anything about designing the room, she would at least force it to get done on her own schedule, and Kaede had allowed for that because she’d figured it would have already been prepared and letting Tenko get her so-called revenge seemed innocent enough.

There was still a change that her revenge would be pointless, and do nothing except invite all sorts of people over to the house for a few hours of looking at the room and sitting around doing nothing much else. Or there would be no room to look at and everyone who showed up would be still sitting around doing nothing, and then they’d all be disappointed in the pair of ladies for putting together such a boring party. That was easily the worst-case scenario regarding the party, but Kaede didn’t have too high of hopes for what they would be able to put together, and they’d barred her from having any say in what they’d be doing, other than making the invitations.

“You forgot that you had something to do too, didn’t you?” Shuichi asked, a hint of teasing in his tone. “I can see it in your eyes, you just remembered that you had something almost as important as I do to get taken care of. Do you want to, uh, go get the things you need for that, or do you want to wait?”

“I think it’d be best if I didn’t put that off any longer, I can only imagine how angry Tenko will be if I forget to get the invites made before she wants them sent out.” The mental image of her friend finding out that nothing she’d needed was taken care of was not one she wanted to see come real, so she knew she had to put her desire to play piano aside for just a moment, just to get those invitations ready for whenever she was asked about them.

_twenty-two._

With every day that went by, it became harder to choose going to work and making a living over spending time at home with Kaede and working on the room, but Shuichi knew that he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. Not taking on crimes to solve meant that he wouldn’t be getting paid, and without being paid he wouldn’t be able to afford any of the things he was planning on buying for the room. He’d already gotten the paint and done the walls, taking it from the bare white it had been to a light blue that would work as a perfect backdrop for everything else he was going to do on them. The choice of color had caused a bit of an argument between him and Kaito, because Kaito was insistent that blue had to be for boys and that it needed to be pink, but he knew what he was planning and the almost pastel blue would work better than any shade of pink.

But what he wanted to do wouldn’t be possible if he wasn’t working, and so he had to put in the almost boring hours every day to be able to fund the project. After he finished up work he’d go home and begin piecing together the next part of everything, stenciling out shapes on the walls that would later need to be filled in, and he’d do this to the sound of Kaede playing different songs on her piano, most often her preference being the song she was in the final stages of finishing preparing. That was their routine for every day he had to work, more or less, and he had to keep reminding himself that he needed to stick to it to get through the days, so that being away didn’t drain too much on him.

One day, he came home to find all lights off and no familiar sound of music coming through the walls, and he had to go through the mental checklist of what was happening that day to figure out what had turned it into something different than usual. There was nothing he was aware of to explain why Kaede might not be home, and so he entered the house quickly and hoped he’d find her sleeping or something out of the ordinary, but completely understandable. There was no such luck, although there was a note on the closed piano saying that she’d be back soon enough, and that he didn’t need to worry about her.

“I suppose it makes sense that she wouldn’t call to tell me this, knowing she’s out while I’m at work would only make me worry longer,” he said, reading the note a second time to check for anything suspicious in its contents. There was a single phrase at the bottom, a rough “hello Shuichi” that was written in a second handwriting, one that he recognized as being Himiko’s, so he had a solid idea of where it was she might have gone, or at least who she’d gone with. While that wasn’t an answer, it was a lead that he could follow if he felt like she was in any sort of danger that warranted investigating.

Choosing to work on the room without Kaede there was a bit strange, but not having the temptation to go see what she was doing meant that he could focus more on what he needed to get done. There wasn’t going to be any furniture added to the room until all of the work on the walls was finished, and that was a fact that he’d made clear, but the deadline of getting everything up on the walls was looming overhead, coming up incredibly quickly. If he was going to get at least basic furniture in the room before everyone came to see what he’d done to the place, that meant that he needed to kick his work into high gear.

While the lack of someone to go talk to meant he could focus better, it also meant that he didn’t have anything to listen to while he was stenciling various things up on the walls. That was the beauty of always having Kaede there, she was so great at providing background noise that was sorely missed in her absence, but he wasn’t going to dwell on what he was missing right then, he was going to focus on what he had. That was uninterrupted work time, and he managed to get the majority of the stenciling done, to the point that he’d need both Kaito and Maki for the next portion of the job when he worked next, before he heard the front door open and Kaede’s heavy steps on the floor as she entered.

“Shuichi, I’m home!” she called out, before he saw her poke her head into the room with a grin on her face. “It looks so great in here already, she’s going to love calling this her very own room once she gets to live in it! I’m excited to see what colors you’re going to paint everything, but I’m not gonna say what I think they should be.”

“We have it planned already, don’t worry,” he told her, setting his pen and stencil down on the floor and joining her in the doorway, her grabbing his empty hands and putting them on her stomach, which made him laugh. “Is she moving around again? She always seems to be rather active at this time of day, doesn’t she?”

“I guess so, I just thought it was because she knew she was back where her dad is, that’s all.” Kaede waited a moment before pushing his hands away, not feeling anything to justify keeping him occupied like she had. “Maybe she’s gone back to sleep, but you know what will make her start kicking around again?”

He tried to hold a gaze into her eyes but his glance flickered down to where he’d been touching, the words “mommy’s little butterfly” in the shape of the creature staring back at him when he looked. “I don’t even have to guess, Kaede. I know that you swear she starts moving more when you’re playing the piano for her.”

“Not just playing the piano, playing the song I created while listening to her little heartbeat,” she corrected, waggling a finger in his face. “Just you wait, that song’s going to be her most favorite thing someday. She’s going to idolize it just like I idolize the classics, and she’s going to love it double because I wrote it for her!”

“Then go keep playing it, it’s a lovely song and I’m sure she does love it already.” Shuichi wasn’t positive on that second part, but he wasn’t going to mention his doubt to Kaede, not when she was so thrilled with the idea of her having written their daughter’s favorite song and already made her enjoy it. She headed out to her piano and he turned to go back to finishing the stencil work, but the realization that Kaede was home and she could now explain why she’d left in the first place hit him right as he was bending down to pick his things back up. As great as it would have been to keep working, knowing what she had been doing felt like it was more important in that moment, and so he joined her in the main room, stopping her right as she was lifting the cover to the keys. “Before you begin, can we talk about something?”

“Sure we can, what’s on your mind?” To not seem rude, she closed the key cover to keep herself from starting to play while talking, and he gestured towards the note that she’d left, which had been moved to sitting on the piano bench. Her face scrunched for a second, before she shrugged whatever was on her mind away. “Oh, that? Tenko came by to see the progress on the room, and then Himiko told me that she’d heard somewhere was looking for a pianist for an event and had offered my services without me knowing, so we had to go talk to the people there. Then, while we were there, and yeah I agreed to their concert, it’s next weekend but it’s going to pay nicely, they suggested I try to get in touch with the Hope’s Peak people about a few shows they need, and…”

At the mention of the school, Shuichi winced, having a sinking fear of what was coming. “Did you follow that suggestion? I know that Kyoko had brought it up with me and I considered telling you, until she told me when it was that they need someone.”

“I, uh, did call them and I did agree to do their shows because those are the best-paying shows you’ll find in the area, Shuichi! I can’t turn down that kind of money!” She was getting worked up over this, and he knew it was because she’d already sensed what his reaction was going to be. “I didn’t know when they were until after I’d already agreed to do it, but it’ll all be fine, I promise! The shows won’t require me doing anything except sitting at the piano for a couple hours at a time, for what comes out to three times that day, and that’s for the best because it’s, well, if Kyoko told you about it then you already know when it is.”

“A week after your due date, I do already know.” To say that Shuichi was upset with this decision would be wrong, because he wasn’t actually upset about it. Kaede had good intentions with agreeing to perform the shows, given that shows were her source of income and her line of work wasn’t always the most fruitful. But, and it was a very strong but, if all went according to plan, they’d have a newborn on their hands at the time and she’d be doing shows all day, separating herself from a child who’d still need her more than anything. She probably hadn’t considered that possibility when she’d been agreeing to jobs, especially if she didn’t know when the jobs were, but he couldn’t help but think about it and be fearful for when it would inevitably come to fruition.

That was going to be a problem for them down the road, though, not at the current moment, so he let it slide, not saying anything else on the matter. “I know I’ll be able to do the show, no matter what, and if I have to go back on my word I’ll accept whatever punishment the people at the school want to give me. Ban me from helping them ever again? That’s fine, I’ll deserve it.” He was certain that Kaede was being a tad overdramatic, especially knowing that Kyoko would fight to defend her decision if she did have to step down from the pianist role for one reason or another. “I just want to do what I can to help this family, I don’t want to be sitting around helplessly! I’m filling the mom role that people like Kaito expect, not the role that people like me want to be filling!”

“But you can’t overwork yourself, even with the best intentions. If you’re suffering, it’s not just going to affect you anymore.” Once again Shuichi’s eyes were focused on the text on her shirt, how the words were in the shape of a butterfly, how they were so simple yet so cute to stare at. “Think about our child, think about how something happening to you affects her.”

“I know, but I…I know it’s right for me to take that job.” Kaede turned to her piano and pushed open the lid once more, setting her fingers on what he knew to be the first notes of her song for the baby. “It’ll be the last one I agree to for a long time, and that’s that. After the performance at Hope’s Peak, I’m taking a long break so I can be a good mom.”

“You’ll be a good mom regardless, don’t you worry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as a warning, the next chapter gets into some vulgarities that are rather par for the course in the series, but not necessarily in this fic!


	5. Chapter 5

_twenty-three_.

When the appointment that had a dual purpose came, Shuichi seemed a lot more excited for it than Kaede did, and he wasn’t sure why that was. She’d been talking up a storm over the past few days about how she couldn’t wait to see their little girl’s face again, only to wake up the morning of the fateful appointment dragging her way into it. “There’s nothing to be this upset about,” he told her, after managing to convince her to get ready to head out for the day. “We’re going to see her, then we’re going to come home and take the week’s picture, since we delayed it just for this.”

“I know, I know, but I just can’t stop thinking that maybe seeing her now isn’t the best idea,” she replied, taking a seat on their bed so that he could get her shoes onto her swollen feet for her. “I want to see her, I really do, but we’re so close to getting to actually meet her that I’m starting to think that seeing her will just make me more impatient about things.”

“You’d be getting more impatient about it all anyway, I’ve heard how much you’ve been complaining about everything recently.” He was right, she’d started taking a nasty attitude towards the smallest of things over the past few days, or she’d start crying over things she couldn’t control, but she wasn’t going to admit to any of that. “Once we get to see her you’ll be rethinking how you’re looking at this, sweetheart, I know that you will.”

“Have I ever mentioned how much I love when you call me that?” Even though she’d just had flaws pointed out to her, she was focusing on the positive thing about what he’d said, that being the sometimes-used pet name he had for her. “If you could call me that all the time, or even just a lot more than you already do, I think we’d…I don’t know, maybe be giving this one a sibling as soon as possible?”

He was so taken aback by her comment that he nearly choked on his spit, taking a few moments to collect himself before responding, “I, er, don’t know if you’re actually as willing for that as you sounded right there, but I’m not taking that as an invitation to call you ‘sweetheart’ all the time. Kaede’s too pretty of a name for me to not use it.”

“Come on, you’re just being difficult,” she replied, puffing her cheeks out as she pouted in disappointment. “You can always use it sometimes, I just want you to call me other names other times too.”

“I’ll consider it, for in the future. Not right now.” The shock of what she’d said was still messing with his head, but he knew that she most likely didn’t mean a word of it and that the chances of her remembering she’d said that were slim to none. That seemed to be correct after they’d left to head to the clinic and she didn’t mention anything along those lines again, although she did seem to pout more every time he called her Kaede as opposed to anything else like she wanted. Her mood turned around once they’d arrived, though, and as they were going through the regular check-in process she seemed to be back to her normal, positive self for at least a little bit.

The appointment started off as all of the previous ones did, but after the routine things were taken care of a technician came into the room, bringing with them one of the machines they’d used what felt like so long ago. There wasn’t much different about how the procedure went, from the position Kaede had to lay in on the table, to the way they made her pull up her shirt and allow for the cool gel to be spread all over her stomach, but once the machine was working and things were beginning to show up on the screen, that was when it all changed. Instead of the grayscale picture they’d seen the two times they’d done this before, the image felt more real, like they were getting an actual glimpse into the current location of where their child was.

First they got to see a hand, little fully-formed fingers curled up into a fist that seemed to be moving back and forth, then from there the technician moved the machine to find what was undeniably a tiny jaw. As they watched, the camera moved up and they could see tiny lips pursed together, then the nose that they’d been able to see before, and finally her two eyes that were right where they should have been. It was breathtaking to see, and it rendered them both speechless for quite some time, while the technician rambled on about different aspects of the procedure and how what they were seeing could be saved to show others, as it was more like a video than anything else.

“A video, huh?” Kaede repeated, her attention barely on what was being said as she watched the gentle movements of the child on-screen. “I think our friends would like to see that, don’t you think so too, Shuichi?”

“Some of them would, definitely.” He was just as interested in watching as she was, but he was also thinking about what this meant for the future for them. They now had a better idea of what this girl was going to look like when she was born, even if it wasn’t absolutely perfect, and now they really had a face to put to talking about her. “Not just that, though. I think this might help us solve a different problem we’ve got.”

She quietly laughed, still looking at the screen and not him. “I think I know which problem you’re talking about, and I agree with you if it’s the same one. That’s also a problem that showing everyone else this would make worse, because they’d all have their own opinions, but…to have a name that fits her face, that would be perfect.”

“A name better than mini Kaede, that’s for sure,” he joked, not realizing that referring to one of the problematic quirks of a friend that had yet to be taken care of would anger his dear wife as much as it did. That soured the end of their appointment, but being able to leave with the digital version of the visit as well as a couple of stills for easy sharing meant that Kaede was able to switch her focus from what had irritated her to what she was going to get to go home and do.

Seeing the blackboard say _thirty weeks_ was almost impossible to wrap their heads around, but based on everything else going on it made perfect sense, even if it didn’t feel like anything had been happening for that long. They were ten weeks from the end goal, give or take, and there was so much that had already changed, but so much that still needed to change as well. Real progress was being made on her room and her song was as good as finished, yet people were still acting badly about her and she, most importantly, didn’t yet have a name for herself.

Back when they’d first found out, and they’d been making the blackboard, Shuichi had expected to change the word “baby” out with whatever they chose as her name, but at this point that switch wouldn’t be happening until there’d be no real use for the board anymore. Giving her a name was now becoming more important than finishing her room, and doing that was something that a lot of people they knew were waiting for. This dive into parenthood was not going as perfectly as it could have been, but despite everything, he felt like they were handling it as well as possible.

_twenty-four._

The night before the baby shower, Kaede had been instructed to open a package that Tenko and Himiko had given her, them claiming that what was inside was important to the success of the following day’s activities. She’d put it off until right before she was going to bed, and so she was surprised to open it and find a pale blue custom-made shirt that she knew she was supposed to wear to the party, something that she was going to do even if it wasn’t obvious that was what was intended with it. She put it somewhere she wouldn’t forget about it and went to bed, not even telling Shuichi what had been in the package before she was trying her hardest to fall asleep.

When he came into the room later and saw her already in bed, her eyes closed and an attempt being made for some restful sleep, he smiled, leaning against the doorframe to just look at her. He’d been finishing up everything he was going to do on the bedroom before the party, and even though it was a much later bedtime than he was used to, he’d been able to consider it all done. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture in the room yet, but it had all been ordered, or at least he’d been told it was being taken care of (by Kaito, which meant it probably hadn’t been taken care of at all), and so he knew that would be a process that could be handled in the coming weeks.

Under his arm was a package similar to the one Kaede had opened, also gifted from the girlfriends with the message to open it before the party because it was crucial for the party going according to plan. He didn’t open it that night, choosing instead to wash up and climb into bed, but when he woke up the next morning to the sight of Kaede standing over him, wearing a new shirt he’d never seen, he immediately knew where she’d gotten it from and jumped out of bed to open his own package, all while she was trying to keep herself from laughing about it.

“I wonder where they got the idea to make these,” he remarked after he was holding his own shirt in his hands, taking note of how it matched the one Kaede was wearing in terms of color, but the text on it was different, and rightfully so. Hers, over the chest, read “mom of the hour” while over her stomach it said “baby of the hour”, and that went along with his and how it said “dad of the hour” on the front. “Certainly someone didn’t suggest anything like this to them at any point, hm?”

“The only thing I said was that I thought matching family shirts would be cute, I didn’t say anything else about it,” she replied, watching him take his current shirt off to replace it with the new one. Once he was wearing it, she clasped her hands together excitedly when she saw his back, her voice getting higher-pitched as she told him, “They even got the butterfly on there, just not on the front. They thought of everything for these!”

He tried looking over his shoulder but couldn’t see anything except blankness on his back, so he did the next best thing and, assuming theirs would match in that aspect as well, went behind Kaede to see what was on her back. True to her word, there was a single pink butterfly that took up the space between her shoulder blades, but she neglected to mention that underneath it, in similar lettering to what they had on the board, was their family name, as well as the day’s date. “Tell me, Kaede, does mine have more than just the butterfly on it? Like, perhaps, some identifiers to mark what today is?”

Now they had to switch who was in front again, but once she was standing where she could see his back she had only one message to give him. “Yeah, it does, that’s pretty cool too. I mean, my favorite part’s how they made these for both of us and didn’t even ask us anything about what we wanted, but they knew anyway! They’re the colors of the room, which I know that Tenko wasn’t supposed to know, and I know that, but maybe I didn’t tell her, maybe it was Himiko I told.”

“You don’t have to attempt to cover your tracks, I know that they both knew far too much about what I was doing, without actually knowing anything at all.” His finger was tracing the lettering on his chest, the fact that it addressed him as a dad filling him with a strange sense of pride that he was sure he’d have to get used to quickly. “I’m just worried about what else they’re planning on doing, if there’s these two shirts then I’m willing to guess there’s more similar to them.”

“Why would there be? We’re the parents, we get the fun presents like this!” Much like what he was doing, Kaede was also tracing letters, but she was running a fingertip along the ones that were resting on her stomach. “I guess if someone who shows up had no idea that there’s a baby in here, they’d learn really quickly, huh?”

“At this point, I don’t think there’s a single person we know who doesn’t know that you’re as pregnant as you are, with how we’ve been sharing updates every week.” She couldn’t refute that fact, because it was the single truest thing that could be said right then, but her point did make him wonder who all was being invited to the party. There were so many people that they knew, or that they had known in the past, that if the people in charge weren’t careful they could have welcomed far more guests than there was room for. “Did…you have anything to do with who was on the invite list?” he asked, the curiosity beginning to get the better of him. “I don’t know if I trust Tenko or Himiko with the best judgment on that.”

Thinking for a second, Kaede gave a rather concerning answer that made the hair on Shuichi’s neck stand tall. “I didn’t, actually, now that you bring it up. I told them people that I didn’t want getting invited, but otherwise they said they had a good idea for who was going to be allowed. I only made, like, twenty invitations though, so don’t worry too much.”

“Twenty invitations, each one going to a couple, and everyone attending would mean forty guests, not counting either of us or either of them. Does it look like we have room for that many people here? Do we even have enough room for when there’s just a handful of people here?” He wasn’t going to let himself get upset about this, but he was beginning to get a lot more worried that this baby shower was not going to end well for them, because of some overzealous girlfriends deciding they were going to run the show.

Ultimately, though, he had to have faith in them to do the right thing and not overwhelm the limited amount of space there at the house. It was something he asked them about when they showed up not quite an hour later, bearing all sorts of gifts and boxes that they brought into the house as quickly as they could. “I made sure that I thought super hard about how much space you had to entertain guests, so don’t get too worked up,” Tenko said when it was brought up, before setting a large box of party decorations down on the piano bench. “Besides, if there isn’t enough room, Himiko promised she’d cast an enlargement spell on the place, isn’t that right?”

“That’s right, I’ll use my magic to save the day if I have to.” Also setting down a box, this one much smaller, Himiko reached into it and began pulling out what looked to be paper streamers that needed hanging. “For now, I guess we’ve got to do hard work in decorating this place before the guests arrive. You think we can keep Kaede away long enough so she can’t see what we’re doing?”

“Oh, uh, yeah that’s something we can do.” Normally when she was supposed to keep herself occupied to avoid something, Kaede was allowed to play her piano, but as the piano was in the room that needed decorating, Shuichi had to break the news to her that she had to stay in their bedroom until one of them let her out. He apologized to her about it several times, Tenko and Himiko chiming in behind him that the reason for it was wholesome and that she’d appreciate it more if she didn’t see things right away. She didn’t take it well at first, but when she was told she could play recordings of music as loud as she wanted to pass the time, she seemed to accept it more.

That was how the trio ended up decorating the main room to the sound of classical music, which given where they were made all the sense in the world. They were still in the middle of hanging little paper butterflies from the ceiling when the front door came flying open, Kaito’s loud voice bellowing out in greeting, “What’s going on in here, and why was I, Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, not invited to be here sooner?”

“Maybe because they’re clearly still setting up, moron,” Maki answered, following behind him into the house. She waved at Shuichi, who gave her a smile in return before he realized that she was wearing a shirt the same color as his, and so was Kaito. “You getting tired of Kaede’s chest, so you’re deciding to look at mine, is that how it is?”

“Ugh, degenerate male, choosing to ogle another woman while the one he’s with is carrying his child, typical disgusting behavior.” Tenko’s grumbling irritated Shuichi more than Maki’s almost-joking comment did, mostly because he knew she thought that it was serious business when it wasn’t. “If I didn’t want this day to be perfect for sweet Kaede, I’d go tell her right now what kind of behaviors the man she’s with is partaking in.”

“Chill out, it wasn’t a real statement. I know he’s looking at the shirt I’m wearing.” Maki glanced down to make sure she was wearing what she thought she was, before looking back to Shuichi with eyebrows slightly raised. “That _is_ what you were looking at, right?”

He nodded, turning his attention over to Kaito’s matching shirt before he got accused of being unfaithful again. “Both of you, you’re wearing ones like the ones Kaede and I got as gifts. Where’d you get yours?”

“Excellent observation there, Shuichi, stuff like that’s why we keep you around!” Throwing his jacket off of his back, Kaito quite literally spun to turn his back towards Shuichi, showing off the familiar butterfly and information pasted onto it. “We got them when we said we’d be here, which was right when we knew when it was, because duh we’d be here! Gotta celebrate mini Kaede with everyone else!”

By that point, the only one still decorating was Himiko, and that was only because she hadn’t even been paying attention to the disruption, her focus entirely on setting out gift bags from inside the box she’d carried in at first. “I hope most of the people we invited show up,” she said, not knowing if anyone was listening to her or not. “We spent a lot of time and promises to get all of this stuff together.”

“You guys had shirts made for all the guests?” Shuichi asked, still not sure if he believed that part of the story so far. “That’s got to cost a lot, and for something like this it doesn’t seem like a good use of money.”

Himiko paused, putting a finger to her chin in thought before shaking her head. “No, the shirts were all free. All of the ones we’ve gotten have been. We know someone who makes them, or she gets them made for her, I don’t know.”

“That would be Angie, correct?” The thought of someone who’d last been preaching strange religious nonsense at him and Kaede being involved in the baby shower didn’t sit well with Shuichi, so when Himiko nodded to answer his question, he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything but fear about that fact. “Ah, so we should expect her to come in through the door any minute then, shouldn’t we?”

“Oh no, we didn’t bother with sending her an invitation, she’d bore us all with her Atua nonsense if she were here,” Tenko said, immediately alleviating that aspect of Shuichi’s fears. “Honestly, she was so detached from everything that until we had these shirts made with your name on them, I think she thought all the baby things were for me or Himiko. Might be why we were able to get so much without paying, but once it came to the party shirts…well, one sermon’s not the end of the world.”

“If she’s not going to be here, what kind of people will be?” he asked, feeling like it was an appropriate time to bring that up. “Kaede told me you didn’t ask her for a list of people to invite, so we’re kind of going into this blind.”

Maki gave a harsh laugh at what was said. “You really think they made the guest list on their own? No, they asked us to help with that part. Perks of living in the same building, I suppose. You got to have us decide who should come and who shouldn’t.”

“That’s reassuring, as long as when you say ‘we’, you don’t mean Kaito.” Looking at the man in question, who’d started looking at some of the decorations without even noticing that they were half-hung, Shuichi waited to hear Maki’s reaction but didn’t get one; when he looked to her he saw that she was giving him a stone-cold glare that told him that he needed to stop that conversation where it was, and because the last thing he wanted was to start a fight, he obliged. “L-let’s get back to decorating before the other guests show up, and so Kaede can come out here and be with us again.”

With two extra pairs of hands, it was easier to get everything that had been brought inside into its place, but when Shuichi admitted that he was glad they were done Tenko started laughing and told him that they’d only just gotten started. There weren’t more decorations, but there was all of the food to bring inside and put in the kitchen, and then there were two couples’ worth of presents to bring in and set somewhere, and that wasn’t even the end of it. The biggest thing was the last thing that they could get to, after all other bags and boxes were out of the way, and sitting in the back seat of the car Tenko drove was the largest box of all, as well as the heaviest. When they carried it inside, Shuichi and Kaito doing the lifting while the others directed or stayed out of the way, they were told to take it into the baby’s room and open it in there, among the colorful walls and the mostly-empty space.

“But don’t open it right now, have Kaede here before you do it,” Tenko instructed, before saying that it would be okay to go get her. Shuichi, having been waiting to hear that, went to the bedroom at once to rescue his wife from the loneliness of being locked up alone, and by the time they were both in the baby’s room a few more boxes had shown up, no one wanting to own up to what was inside them or who’d purchased them.

Of course, given what the arrangement on designing the room had been, Shuichi knew that if any of them were from Kaito, they’d be things that they’d specifically discussed getting. As Kaede knew that was also supposed to be how it worked, they both found themselves looking to the man for answers, and answers they did receive. “I know you wanted to be the one to buy this stuff, but we decided we’d go ahead and do it for ya both, as a big gift from the group,” he said, stroking the hair on his chin before grinning. “Consider it a lot of big gifts, most of them from me and my wallet!”

“He wouldn’t shut up about how he wanted to spoil ‘mini Kaede’ because that’s the closest he’s ever going to get to a mini version of himself,” Maki added, clearly resisting elbowing him to get him to stop being so over-the-top. “So this is really just our form of financial birth control, so to speak.”

“Babies are really expensive, I don’t know how anyone would want to pay for one all on their own.” His grin fading as the truth behind his generosity was revealed, Kaito looked around at everyone in the room, before settling his gaze on Kaede, who shrank back slightly when she saw his eager eyes. “That doesn’t matter now, not when you’ve got me here to help you out! Open something, it’s all exactly what you’ve wanted!”

“I don’t think I ever said anything I wanted.” She was having a hard time keeping herself together right there, especially when Tenko and Himiko stepped out for a moment and came back wearing their own version of the blue shirts. When she saw them matching the rest of them, and looking happy about it, that was all it took for tears to start brimming in Kaede’s eyes. “Okay, I lied, all I wanted was for my baby to be so loved, and it’s so clear that she is right here! Shuichi, which box should we open first?”

He wanted to give her a hug but knew that doing so might cause the real waterworks to begin, so he turned his eyes to the different boxes sitting on the floor. “If I’m not mistaken, the big one should be the crib for in the corner,” he guessed, merely on size alone as all the boxes had been stripped of any identifying marks or stickers. “The smaller ones…maybe drawers or shelves? Both, perhaps? As for the one on top, I have a feeling that’s something for transport, like a stroller or a car seat, based solely on how it’s a different shape than the rest and doesn’t look to be as heavy.”

His evaluation was met with silence for the first few seconds, before Kaito awkwardly chuckled, backing away from the boxes a bit. “I don’t think I want to be anywhere near those x-ray eyes you’ve got there, but that was really impressive! Can’t wait to see how you guess all the other gifts people are bringing for you guys!”

“What, you mean I got those all right?”

“Righter than right. The crib one, that was easy, and thanks Tenko for letting us use your car to bring that over, but the others weren’t supposed to be easy at all. Damn it, I wanted to get to surprise you guys and it didn’t work, not even a little!” Kaito raised a fist, shaking it in Shuichi’s direction a few times before letting go of the whole thing. “C’mon, since you already know what we got, maybe opening it all now isn’t necessary. We won’t get anything put together before people show up, anyway, so let’s just go out and start having an actual party, yeah?”

No one was going to argue with the idea of starting the celebration, and so they filed out of the room, ready to sit around and wait until people started arriving with gifts of their own in hand, all for the sake of a little baby.

_twenty-five._

All things put into perspective, for the amount of people that Kaede and Shuichi knew that would be interested in attending the baby shower, there weren’t that many people that showed up. Once the time for the party had arrived, messages of apologies for not being able to attend started flooding in, mostly due to its mid-week and late-afternoon timeframe, with lots of promises of bringing by gifts for the baby at some later point. It was forgivable, though, because once more than a couple guests arrived the house began to feel crowded with everyone and everything inside of it, and it was a feeling that did not go away easily.

Especially not when, after she’d pushed everyone and everything away from her piano so she could have that space to herself for just a little bit, Kaede found herself being grabbed by hands that she didn’t recognize as belonging to someone she was particularly close to, based on looking at the dirty fingers as they caressed her shoulders. “God damn, here I was thinking that the camera you’ve been using was adding ten pounds in every picture, but nope, you’ve really gotten that fat in real life,” the person grabbing her sneered, loudly laughing as they finished speaking. “And, oh boy, I never want to hear you insult my chest again when you’ve got _actual_ , functional udders on yours now!” The laughing happened a second time, drawing the attention of others in the room but not even fazing Kaede.

“Hello to you too, Miu, now will you let go of me, pretty please?” she calmly asked, trying to shrug the hands off of her but getting nails digging into her instead. “I’m not in the mood to get you off the way you want me to, please just do as I ask.”

“And what if I don’t? Ol’ preggo here going to knock me into next week? Only way you’ll make a dent on this beautiful body is if you decide you’re going to sit on me!” Once again Miu was laughing, her nasally, almost screeching laugh a pain to Kaede’s ears but still all she did was nicely ask for her to back away. “Seriously, you’re wasting your breath, and by the looks of you, you might need that breath if you decide to get up and move!”

Deciding right then that she wasn’t going to listen to another word of Miu’s nonsense, Kaede reached up and grabbed her wrists, attempting to pry her off to no avail. “Let go of me, I wasn’t even doing anything to you and you’re here bothering me for no reason at all!” She tightened her grip and tried tugging again, but all she did was make it feel like she was straining muscles that didn’t need the extra work. “I’ll scream until you have to leave me alone, I really will do it.”

“Where’s your bark, you used to be so great at snapping back whenever I’d insult you, you’re just lame now that you’re going to be a mom, aren’t you?” Doing the honors of letting go on her own terms, and shaking Kaede’s hands off of her with relative ease, Miu decided that just leaving things where they were wasn’t good enough for her, and she sat down on the edge of the piano bench, straddling it as she faced Kaede. “Come on, where’s that bitchy spirit I know you had? The inner dominatrix? Any of that bullshit that you could pull on me?”

“Pl-please, leave me alone right now, I don’t want you so close to me.” Kaede was trying her best not to look at Miu, but even out of the corner of her eye she could see the way that Miu was glaring at her, the way she’d cut the collar of her shirt to make it much lower cut than it needed to be, the way she was leaning in, making there be very little space between them there on the bench. “I’m trying to take a moment for myself and you’re ruining it.”

“Does it look like I care if I’m ruining it? Psh, if I cared, I wouldn’t have bothered showing up to the world’s shittiest party you’ve got going here. Only reason I came was to see how far you’ve fallen, and boy was I not disappointed in what I got!” One of Miu’s hands was wrapping around behind Kaede, while the other had found its way onto her stomach, which she had held up her entire, open hand to, stretching her fingers as far as they could to see how much she could grab at once. “When they say that pregnant girls are eating for two, I don’t think they mean two full-grown adults, you pig! What does your boy-toy even see in you anymore, now that you look like this? He a chubby-chaser, is that what it is?”

Any kind of rebuttal Kaede wanted to give was stopped mid-breath, as she felt that hand of Miu’s from behind her snake up and start fondling her, which made her scream and trying moving away, something she wasn’t able to do with how intertwined they’d gotten. The scream had the benefit of alerting others to what was happening, and within seconds there was someone behind the two of them, sticking their hands in between them to try and separate them. “Get your grimy slut hands off of the guest of honor,” Tenko spat, trying her hardest to break them apart. “I knew inviting you would cause trouble, but I didn’t know it would be this kind of trouble!”

“Wh-why are you talking to me like that?” Miu’s voice was cracking, something about how angry Tenko sounded when she spoke to her making her shift into her more submissive persona. “I was just getting reacquainted with an old friend, there’s no need to call me…things like that. I’m only a little bit of a slut, sometimes!” Even with her stammering, she was still touching up on Kaede, despite Tenko’s attempt to get her away.

“I said get your hands off of her, or I’m going to Neo-Aikido your ass into next week!” Getting her elbow into the mix, Tenko tried jamming it into the exposed cleavage that Miu seemed so proud to be sporting, but her attempt at prying them apart with just her hands managed to work before she could make more than a surface contact. Miu fell backwards onto the floor, having either been forced off the bench, or by choosing to dramatically throw herself off, and after making sure that Kaede was okay, Tenko was moving to stand over Miu, cracking her knuckles as she leaned down menacingly. “So, do I take that as a ‘yes please, beat me up’ or a ‘no please, I learned my lesson’?”

“Don’t touch my beautiful genius body, that’s what you should take that as!” The whole incident was beginning to attract the attention of everyone in the house, regardless of what they’d been doing before, and Miu wasn’t going to let herself be put down in front of everyone. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong to deserve this, and now you’ve put _your_ dirty hands on me and ruined my complexion! How am I going to be both smart and gorgeous if someone with someone else’s vagina hands has been rubbing herself all over me? I’m going to smell like rancid lips forever thanks to you! And yet you want to tell me I’m the one doing something wrong? That’s just bullsh—”

She cut herself off when everyone present heard a choking sob, followed by the slamming of the cover on the piano keys. “Please, can you stop fighting right now?” Kaede asked, her voice wavering as she was trying her hardest to not cry. “This is supposed to be a good day, not a bad one, but if you’re fighting you’re just going to make it bad for everyone! We have to get along and we…and you two need to…”

Whispers filled the room from everyone trying to understand why Kaede was at the point of blinking away tears from something happening between Tenko and Miu, but there was explanation soon enough. “She was speaking to you in ways I’m not going to tolerate on today of all days,” Tenko said, holding a glare at Miu until she turned to look at Kaede and how distraught she seemed to be. “If anyone else had been the first to see or hear it, I’m sure they would have stepped in as well.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t stop her myself. I guess you can say I deserved what I got with her, huh?” The last couple words were almost inaudible with how the crying started, and Kaede ended up getting off the piano bench and weaving through everyone in the house to get to the bedroom, which she entered without saying anything to anyone else.

Now that there was dealing with her to take care of, everyone who felt like they knew her well enough (aside from Tenko, who had gone back to badgering Miu while she was still sprawled on the floor, trying to play the victim and get talked down to) made their way towards that bedroom door, which was predictably locked. “Kaede, please let us know what’s going on to make you upset like this,” Shuichi pleaded, turning the doorknob but finding that it wasn’t going to budge. “Seeing you crying because you’re hurt is not the kind of crying anyone wanted from you today, I’m pretty sure.”

Her muffled response on the other side, a mixture of crying and having her face buried in something, was impossible to make out. Their lack of being able to get an answer they could do anything with prompted Maki to suggest, “I’ve got skills in breaking into places undetected, I could go in through the window to check on her. That, or we could have someone bust down the door. Your call.”

“We don’t need someone to bust it down, not when I could use my magic to unlock it.” Himiko waited for a second in case someone was going to make a comment about the plausibility of what she’d said, and when she got nothing she confidently pumped both hands in front of herself. “That’s what I thought, you’re finally coming around to trusting this mage to do work.”

“There’s always the spare key, isn’t there? Haven’t ya mentioned having one of those for this door before?” Standing behind the three, because he was all-too-familiar with how much he wasn’t Kaede’s favorite person to see, Kaito looked back towards where everyone else there was gathering around whatever was still happening between the two ladies by the piano. “Then again, might not be for the best if all of us know where it is, not like the one for the front door.”

“It was a good attempt there, Kaito, but no, there isn’t a key to this door anywhere. Maki’s idea to bust through might be the one we have to go with, sorry that we aren’t going to try magical unlocking with you Himiko, but we need quick results.” The two who’d had their plans shot down didn’t seem bummed by it, even though Kaito took the loss to go watch what everyone else was witnessing, but Maki was proceeding to size the door up, looking carefully at it, which prompted Shuichi to say, “Oh, uh, if you’re going to break it, we should move the mirror first. That’s the last thing we need broken right now.”

“If only because of the glass shards, yes.” It was while they were trying to get the mirror off of its hook that the realization hit them both that it was hanging off the top of the door, and as the door was locked shut there was no way to get it away from where it was. At that defeat, Maki shook her head and declared that idea worse than the window one, but Shuichi wouldn’t budge on letting her break into one of their bedroom windows.

While they were going back and forth about what to do in the scenario they’d found themselves in, Himiko decided she’d try the doorknob for herself, and was surprised when it opened in her palm. “My unlocking spell saved the day after all,” she declared, pushing the door open enough to make it clear that it was able to be opened, before stepping back to let the others finish the job. “I’m going to go heal Tenko’s wounds if she got any, you two have fun calming Kaede back down.”

As the two of them stood in front of the now-open door, they could hear Kaede on the other side still sniffling, and Maki looked at Shuichi with a serious expression upon her face. “I think I’ll leave this up to you, you’re her husband and you know how to cheer her up best. Besides, if Himiko has to heal Tenko, then someone needs to be putting Miu in her place still, and who else should it be but me?”

“Thank you for your sacrifice there, Maki.” Her expression brightened slightly before she was stepping away as well, leaving him there at the door by himself, not sure what he was going to need to do in order to make Kaede feel better but knowing that he wasn’t going to accomplish anything if he didn’t give it a shot. He pushed the door open further and stepped inside, only for the door to close behind him without him touching it. Turning around, he saw Kaede standing right behind it, her face reddened and her cheeks stained with tear-tracks. “Sweetheart, what happened out there? Why are you crying?”

She opened her mouth to explain, or at least gave a valiant attempt to, but she was coughing out sobs again without a single word to accompany any of them. Feeling like he’d done something wrong by letting her feel this way, he opened his arms for a hug and gestured for her to come closer, something she refused to do. That meant he had to go hug her himself, having to guess to what position would be comfortable for her as he wrapped his arms around her and waited for her to return the favor to him. There was no such luck, as once he’d gotten in close she’d started crying even harder, and he could feel her tears dripping onto him while having zero idea of what he needed to do to get her to stop.

The best course of action, then, became letting her cry out her emotions and hurt feelings until she was able to compose herself enough to speak. “You don’t…think I’m ugly now, do you?” she managed to get out, making him give a breathy “no way” as a response out of the surprise that that’s what he heard her say. “You don’t have to lie to me, Shuichi. I know that you really think it…”

“Please, Kaede, whatever was said to you out there is not the truth.” He was able to make sense of what had happened now that he’d heard her vocalize a fear that he’d been worried she’d develop at some point. “I think that you’re just as lovely now as you were when we met and at every point between. In fact, I’d say that you’re just as lovely and you’re twice, maybe even three times, as strong as you were then. You’re doing something I could never dream of, you know.”

His statement was pleasing to her ears, but what Miu had said to her was taking too strong of a hold on Kaede’s mind for her to believe it. “Sure I am, and all I’ve done is get fat and ugly because of it, and you really can tell me that’s the truth.”

“That’s the truth a vulgar-minded woman who had no business being invited to celebrate with us today wants you to believe, but it’s not the truth that the rest of us know.” In his arms, he could feel every deep breath followed by multiple shallow ones as she was slowly stopping crying, and he hoped that he didn’t do more harm than good by trying to point out the flaws in whatever Miu had said, without having heard it himself. “If she called you those rude things, she did it without appreciating the fact that you’re pregnant, and I’d say you’re easily the cutest pregnant woman I’ve ever seen, hands down.”

“You only say that because we’re married,” she quietly muttered, sniffling but not falling back into her heavy tears. “If I were just some random woman, you wouldn’t be so nice about things.”

“I also wouldn’t be comforting you in a bedroom if you were some random woman, so put things into perspective a bit better, Kaede.” That was enough to get her to crack a tiny smile for just a second, before she was back to looking sad, but that was a victory in Shuichi’s mind. “Besides, what business does Miu have commenting on how you look? Or what business does she have upsetting you with her comments?”

Kaede had to take a few moments of collecting her thoughts before she explained why it was that she’d let Miu’s words impact her so deeply: “She doesn’t have any business doing what she did, but I let her anyway because I thought she’d compliment me. I thought she’d say something nice that I need to hear, not call me a pig and insult everything about me.”

“That’d be Miu for you, though. All insults, nothing nice. If she thinks that you’ve become a ‘pig’ for following all the guidelines and staying more or less exactly where the doctors expect you to be right now, then something’s wrong with her, not you.” That was when Shuichi pulled out of the hug, stepping back to look at Kaede and how she was still standing with a bit of a hunch to her, as if she was trying to minimize her physical presence there in the room. “You’re perfectly fine and healthy, and nothing she said matters. And if she says something else, you know what to do, don’t you?”

“Let Tenko get involved?”

“I was going to say Maki, because she’s already had to deal with Tenko, but both might do the trick.” He chuckled at her response and got her to smile once again, and after a couple more minutes of talking things through, giving her the complete confidence in herself that she needed, they left the bedroom to enter a scene that was very similar to the one they’d originally left from. The only difference was that there weren’t any ladies threatening to get physical on the floor, them having moved to standing on opposite sides of the room.

That changed when Kaede was going back towards her piano, with Shuichi walking beside her with her hand firmly in his. It was Miu making the move again, with all eyes on her judging her for her quick jump to action, but she didn’t say anything until her targets were in place, one on the bench and the other next to her. “I guess I should apologize or something for what I did. Fuckin’ stupid, if you ask me, but it’s either a sorry or a fist somewhere I’d rather not be fisted, so sorry it is.”

“Apologizing is the first step to moving past things, so I accept,” Kaede said, not even looking towards Miu so that she could maintain her composure. “Just don’t think about touching me without permission again, thank you.”

“Message received loud and clear, preggo. Tenko made sure to teach me that one.” Loudly laughing, Miu attempted to sit on the bench on the other side of Kaede, almost restarting their interaction from before, but a stern glare from Shuichi (as well as a couple of gasps from the people watching) stopped her before she got anywhere. “Okay, okay, no sitting, that’s fine by me. I should probably be blowing this place soon anyway so no need for me to kick my beautiful feet up.”

“I think I speak for everyone when I say we’d be happier if you left right now,” Tenko called from where she was protectively watching, playing the role of second-in-line to put Miu in place if she tried anything. “Remember, no funny business or I’ll use my Neo-Aikido on you and make you regret being born.”

Cringing at the threat, Miu hesitated for a second before she continued speaking. “Okay, so I didn’t come to this sad excuse of a party without a gift, because what kind of guest does that sort of thing? I’ve got brains, beauty, and I’m charitable, what can I say? But seriously, it’s in a small box and you’ll know it’s from me the moment you see it. Just…don’t take anything that might be in the card in with it seriously, you overdramatic whale, got it?” As her final hurrah, Miu bent down and grabbed as much of Kaede’s rear as she could get in her hand before backing away to the glares of everyone who’d seen what she did, giving them all obscene gestures until she was out of the house.

“Whoever chose to invite her, you made a mistake, and on Kaede’s behalf I’m going to make you pay.” Maki had the deadliest of glares in her eyes, looking around for who she knew was the one who’d made that decision, but the small woman she was searching for just wasn’t able to be found. “Okay, Himiko, you can hide now, but you won’t hide forever.”

“H-hey, let’s not threaten someone who thought they were doing us a favor with violence, not until we’ve seen the gift Miu brought.” It pained Shuichi to want to actually look at the gift, but if she’d shown up and made such a scene to announce that she’d brought it, then there was the chance that it was actually going to be useful. The chance was slim, but it was still a chance.

_twenty-six._

The amount of gifts that had been brought by guests, or dropped off by others who weren’t able to attend due to the timing of the party, was impressive and somewhat concerning, but they weren’t going to turn down free things from people who cared about them. A lot of the small bags were essentials, namely clothing, diapers, or bottles, but when it came to the bigger gifts there was a much wider variety of what they received. In addition to the furniture that had already been delivered into the bedroom, they were gifted with some toys, some more little pieces of furniture to decorate with, and some items aimed at making caring for a young child easier, like chest carriers and special pillows.

That was all impressive enough, and by the time they’d gotten through all those things and people had moved them into the room for them, they were considering the party to be a total success. “You all have really outdone yourselves, thank you so much,” Shuichi told them all as they both looked at everyone who’d stayed that long into the party. “This has gone rather well, and we know that our baby’s going to be well-loved by each and every one of you.”

“Why are you speaking like you’re finished with the gifts?” multiple voices asked, the loudest of them all being Kaito’s, as he continued with, “Man, we’re just getting started here! Don’t you think for a second that we’re leaving this house without mini Kaede there being completely spoiled, because we’re not.”

“I don’t know if I like the sound of that,” Kaede admitted, leaning in towards Shuichi so she could whisper into his ear. “What if someone tries something funny during this? Do you think maybe we should stop it?”

He understood her hesitance but didn’t want to crush the dreams of all the people who had given something to make this happen. “No, let’s see where it goes before we do anything. I have a feeling this will end well, but we’ll never know if we stop it.”

The time to know if that was the right decision was upon them, as Kaito and Maki both stood up, one of them looking like they had the best news ever to share while the other looked like they were bored with what was going on. “I guess we should go first,” Maki said, scratching at the back of her neck as she glanced towards Kaito, him nearly vibrating in excitement from what he knew was coming. “Not like there’s much for us to say, we’ve already given so many things that if we had anything else, it would have to really matter.”

“Except we _do_ have something else, it’s just not here yet,” he continued, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her, despite the look on her face going from bored to “I want to murder” in the second it took for him to make his impulse decision. “Okay, that’s a bit of a lie, it’s here but it’s not here, if that makes sense? Hard to give you a physical something when all we’re really giving you is the chance to do something here soon.”

Maki could see a light in the eyes of the pair they were talking to and wanted to put a stop to any conclusions before they could be jumped to. “Pictures. We got you actual, professional pictures, as a keepsake or something to remember how things were before the baby’s born. I’ll get you more information about them, Shuichi, because I know Kaito won’t get it done before day-of.”

“Whoa there, Maki Roll, I thought we agreed that we’d keep the actual gift secret from them until the day the pictures are scheduled?” Kaito was clueless to how what he’d said could have been interpreted and therefore didn’t understand why she’d come out and told them in plain terms what their gift was, but he wasn’t upset about the reveal. “Oh well, now ya know what we did. It’s not much if you think about it, but the meaning? There’s meaning to it.”

“I appreciate it, you guys know how much I love pictures,” Kaede said, pointing towards the board on the wall that read _thirty-one weeks_ with a smile. “They’ll be something nice to look back on years from now, so thank you both so much.”

They sat back down, for the next person to stand up and present their special gift to the couple. “We may not be in close contact very often,” a somewhat soft and very inviting voice told them, the speaker a short-haired woman who had modified her baby shower guest shirt into a crop-top, with a high-waisted skirt underneath it, “but do know that when I was informed of this celebration I put all other priorities to the side to be able to attend. Because of that, I am offering up my services to you if you ever find that you need them, be it a simple dish washing or a full house cleaning, or anything in between. I would rather you spend your free time with your child, not having to play catch-up on housework.”

“That’s really sweet of you, Kirumi, and I’m sure we’ll find ourselves needing it somewhere down the road.” For a moment, Shuichi was considering asking her how they’d be able to find her if they did need her, given that they hadn’t talked to her in years and the last time they’d seen her properly might have been at their wedding, but she stepped forward and handed him a card that had her contact information on it.

As he was tucking that away, she was sitting back down and the next person was taking the floor, this one easily the smallest person there and bringing a smile to both their faces when they saw that he had something for them. “I’m sure the two of you know about the whole ‘prison release system’ that I’ve found myself wrapped up in,” the deep voice of the smaller speaker said, him adjusting his hat to show his eyes a bit better. “Turns out, one of the ways I can get out here and there that isn’t a huge deal like this is to do some babysitting, so if you ever feel you need a break from the kid, I’ll be your guy. Doesn’t have to be any time soon either, this offer isn’t expiring.”

Sharing a look between them, as that gift was a bit harder to be excited about than having the offer of free maid services, Kaede eventually was the one who accepted it. “We’ll keep that in mind for in the future, but thank you Ryoma! I bet there’ll be times where everyone else has had their time with the little one and we need a new pair of hands with her, definitely!” He nodded at what she said and she smiled at him, before looking at Shuichi once more. “I’m right, right? With all the people who will want to watch her, there’s bound to be some time when they’re all tired of it?”

While they discussed that possibility, Ryoma went back to sit down and Tenko came up next, playing with one of her long braids of hair until she had the attention of the expectant couple on her. “So this is the part where I say that what Himiko and I got, aside from the whole party itself, of course, goes along with what someone else got, and that’s going to remain a little bit of a surprise for now. But, never fear, I’m going to take care of all the special gifts from the people who couldn’t be here for this part! Himiko, start handing them over, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover!”

She was not lying when she said there was a lot, because they spent a fair amount of time going through the different gifts, all of which had notes meant for the couple to read while the gift itself was shown off and explained. There was a tiny replica piano, courtesy of the administrative staff at Hope’s Peak, that had a note clearly penned by Kyoko attached to it, and the next gift was also from her but consisted of a couple framed articles of children solving crimes. The fact that she’d had a hand in giving two gifts aimed at teaching the baby about her parents’ interests did not surprise them, and they both knew they’d need to thank her the next time their paths crossed. There were other neat gifts like that, not just simple items gifted to fulfill a duty but to give something special to the family in some way—such as the free swimming lessons gift and some of the other athletic-themed ones, but how the four who’d worked on inviting people knew where to send an invite to get those in return, neither of them were quite sure.

The last gift that Tenko was responsible for was a small box, that she took from Himiko with disgust when she handed it over “This one’s whatever nonsense Miu decided to bring you, which can’t end well but you’ve got to open it, I guess. We’ve got a schedule we need to follow, some people work in the morning.” As she didn’t want anything to do with the box, she set it right on the floor in front of Shuichi, pushing it towards him with her foot. “Have fun opening that, even I don’t know what’s in it and all gifts were supposed to be ran past me before they were purchased!”

To say he didn’t want to open the box was an understatement, as Shuichi knew enough about how Miu had been acting to assume that she’d delivered some sort of gag gift in an attempt to be funny. But with Kaede there, having been antagonized by the woman already once that day, he wasn’t sure if she’d pull a similar prank twice, and so the box was opened. Inside was a card addressed to them both in hurtful names, as well as what looked to be a small robot. “I think she just got another toy to add to the pile,” he announced, picking the robot up while Kaede took care of looking at the card. “Leave it to Miu to assume that all girls are interested in robotic pals, but something tells me she’s wrong on this one.”

“He’s not a toy, he’s even better.” Kaede’s voice was getting choked up again as she read the card, the reason for which might have been what Miu had warned about before she’d left, but she offered to trade the card in order to take the robot for herself. “According to her note, his name is Baby Keebo, which is…you know, probably in reference to something.”

Allowing for the trade to happen, Shuichi began to read the card, skimming past the part where Miu wrote extensively about insulting Kaede in every way possible, before getting to the explanation of her gift. “It seems that she was working on this little guy as a recording device to eliminate the need for baby monitors, but outfitted him with other features like video recording and even voice commands? And she gave it to us because we, well, could test it out and see if it works enough to go to market.”

“I’m a bit scared to try him out, but if she wants to sell robots like him maybe it’s for the best if we give him a shot?” Even without addressing the root of her fears, Shuichi knew that Kaede was worried that the robot would exist only to fling insults or be degrading towards her, but if she was willing to move past it, then so was he. “If he works, someone will have to thank her for giving us him. Our very own robot friend for our baby, how cool!”

“Okay, okay, enough with Miu’s dumb robot, we’ve got to finish up here soon,” Tenko said, clapping her hands together to show that she was moving on. “I’m all out of things to give you here, so the last thing you’re getting from me will come at the same time you’re doing the pictures here in a couple weeks or whatever. We worked it all out, so it’s going to go to plan, I know without a doubt.”

She didn’t even have a chance to step aside before she was being picked up and moved out of the way, her screaming about a so-called degenerate male putting a hand on her without her permission until she was set to the side, much like the gifts had been. “Two things. One, Gonta loves the butterfly everything, very cute, very good for teaching baby about bugs,” the gentle, if not a bit intimidating, Gonta told them as he stood tall above everyone else sitting down. “Two, do not worry about getting all the things for baby put together! Gonta’s gift is to have put everything together exactly as instructed, and put into places that all the friends decided they needed to be!” His smile was infectious, but it was what he had said that was more interesting than anything he could have been doing; while it was rude to want to go look and see how he’d arranged the room, there was a large part of Shuichi that wanted to check to make sure it looked as he’d envisioned it.

But having someone gift physical labor to get a necessary thing done sooner rather than later was easily one of the more appreciated gifts, and they made sure they both let him know that, even without knowing how well he’d done. They wouldn’t know that until the guests were all gone, including party hosts, because the last bit of the party was spent frantically fitting everything else in that they’d neglected to do when more people had been present. The last things they’d done before everyone left were take a group picture at the blackboard, so that the week’s update could make the baby shower very obvious, and then let Kaede take her spot at the piano and play what she was certain was the final version of the song she’d composed for the baby. Without a doubt, it was the best ending the day could have had for everyone, yet it somehow got better later after everything was clean and it was just the pair at home, and they went to look at the baby’s room. It looked almost as if someone had taken a picture of how Shuichi had been picturing it and followed it to the letter, the only thing being wrong was how there wasn’t any organization with the clothes and things that had been gifted to them. There’d be time for that in the future, however, and for right then everything was perfect in their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to give a big thank you to anyone who's said anything to me about this fic in the comments! I hate replying to comments on the fic because then it looks like it has more comments than it does, but sometimes there's no other way for me to reply! I hope you continue supporting this project over the next few weeks as it begins wrapping up! c:


	6. Chapter 6

_twenty-seven_.

Shuichi woke up a bit earlier than usual one morning completely on accident, but he was grateful that it happened because it gave him a chance to take care of some things before Kaede was even awake, even though she’d most likely have let him do whatever he wanted if she did wake up. If the tables were turned and she was trying to take care of something underneath his nose she’d never have been successful, but because this was him doing the work she’d never suspect anything was going on until it was spelled out in front of her.

It was slightly miraculous that she hadn’t caught on to something happening the night before, when he was getting an almost obscene amount of messages from people, things that he played off as work-related business. “Okay, that makes sense, but you’re not working tomorrow, are you?” she’d asked then, her eyes shining playfully at him as she’d spoken. “You do remember what tomorrow is, there’s no way you’ve forgotten, so you can’t be taking on investigations when you’re supposed to be with me!”

He’d sworn that he was not going to be doing a single case-related activity, and she’d accepted his word without further question; that was a smart move on her part, as he had actually not been lying when he said that he wasn’t working, but the whole conversation itself had been built on a lie. It wasn’t anyone at any detective agency in the city trying to get him to respond, it was some of their friends, delivering details to him that he needed to keep as quiet as possible until the next day, until things were to start coming together. He was slightly skeptical about their decision to do _this_ on Kaede’s birthday, of all days, but he decided to trust his friends’ decision-making process and not fight to change any of the timing of their plans.

All he had to do that morning before she woke up was make sure that he knew the details of where he was going, what he was doing, and the level of readiness he’d need for her before they did anything. It was much easier to have those conversations while she was asleep and therefore not questioning him when his phone kept lighting up with new messages, and to keep it as secret as possible he even moved into the baby’s room to be in complete silence, and to give her the space she’d need to sleep. Between everyone he was conversing with, he was able to gather the fact that they needed nothing but themselves when they showed up at a nearby park that afternoon, and that the person they’d meet there would be able to handle everything else. No one would say who this person was, though, and worries of them being someone they wanted zero interaction with did cross his mind until he realized that there was no way the four people they were closest to would do that to them.

Once those conversations dwindled into nothing, or turned into the usual nonsense in the case of one of them, he could have gone back into their bedroom to see if Kaede was awake or if she was still asleep, but he chose to keep sitting on the floor where he was. There was something incredibly calming about being in such a well-decorated room that he’d had the whole vision for and had done a good amount of the work on, but there was something more to it than that. The fact that this room was intended for his child, for someone he loved so much without having properly met, meant more to him than he was sure he’d ever be able to express in words. She was going to be born into a family that loved her and cherished her and wanted the world for her from the very start, and her room was one way they’d been able to show that.

He found himself looking at the walls, at the delicate pink butterflies that were painted all over, at the hand-designed piano keys that circled the room where the walls met the ceiling, at the light blue and brighter pink that had been chosen for most of the decorating. He’d been worried that the colors wouldn’t work together, but they’d blended well and he could see them lasting long into the girl’s life, as long as she was okay with them. The concept of them actually having a real child around in the somewhat near future was daunting, but it was something he was beyond ready to face head-on, or so he thought.

Before that, though, they had to get through the questionably-scheduled events taking place that day, in addition to everything coming at them over the next month, for sure, and maybe a bit beyond that. He was still wary of how things were going to work out that day, with Kaede already having high hopes for what she’d be doing on her birthday and him having to shuffle her into something she wasn’t expecting, but once they got through that everything should have become much easier. All he needed was for her to wake up and for the afternoon to arrive, and then they’d be part of the way through their day.

That became simultaneously easier and more difficult when Kaede didn’t wake up until almost noon, Shuichi not wanting to wake her up because she’d been struggling to sleep for so long that knowing she was getting the rest she deserved was worth being alone during waking hours. She was a bit confused about why she’d been allowed to sleep so long, but when he reminded her what day it was she immediately got over her confusion. “Letting me sleep in on my birthday? Aw, Shuichi, you shouldn’t have! We could have been spending all that time together doing something cool!”

“You looked peaceful and who was I to disrupt that?” He wasn’t going to tell her that her sleeping in had put a slight kink in the plans for the day, unless she was going to get up right then and start getting ready, but he was going to make her feel like he’d actively chosen to let her sleep. The truth was, he wanted her to be as content as she could be when he forced her to go do something she might not have been ready to do, and he figured that letting her be as rested as possible would be helpful in achieving that goal. The time issue almost didn’t even end up being something to worry about, because she got out of bed almost immediately—but that was to go take a long shower, which she insisted she needed because she was sore and her body still felt tired, even though she’d slept for so long.

That meant he was left watching the clock as he heard her in the bathroom, the sound of the water running telling him that he didn’t have a chance of getting her out of there anytime soon. She came out on her own terms half an hour later, dried off and back in her pajamas, with a towel around her hair and a smile on her face. “I feel so much better now, and I’ll be clean too for whatever we do today! You’re taking me out to dinner, that’s still the plan, isn’t it?” He hadn’t heard a word of that plan before so he merely nodded and her smile grew. “That’s what I like to hear! I can’t wait, but first, we’re going to have to have a late breakfast, aren’t we?”

“It’s lunchtime, we’ll have to just eat one meal and call it good,” he replied, watching her smile fade somewhat but her spirits remained high, a positive sign. He knew what they’d be eating, they just needed to have the time to get it before they had other places to be. “Speaking of that, don’t you think you should get dressed so we can go somewhere to eat now, before we have our dinner later? I suspect you don’t want the world seeing you dressed like that.”

She looked down at herself, in her long pants that dragged on the floor and her shirt that was intentionally several sizes too big yet still was stretching where it touched her stomach. “I think you might be right there,” she laughed, moving across the room to where her clothes were hanging in the closet, her walking having become a slightly swaying waddle that he couldn’t help but watch intently. With his eyes still glued on her, she stripped down and slowly started redressing herself, picking out a cute shirt to wear (that was surprisingly not one with some saying adorning it) and getting it on before she pulled out a skirt that he knew, without a doubt, was not going to fit her.

“You’re not going to try wearing that, are you?” he asked, cringing when he saw her nod and unzip the side zipper to step into it. “Kaede, what are you doing? You’re going to ruin that if you try putting it on, I know you love it but it’s not…you’re not…”

“It’s the most adorable skirt I own, and I have to look my best on my birthday, simple as that. I know that I bought it months ago and wore it all the time back then, but it should still fit me now. Just have to wear it lower on my hips and we’ll be good!” She was struggling to put it on, the act of bending low enough to start pulling it up a bit difficult but not impossible, and as he was still watching her she got it up over her legs and began trying to zip it back up, finding that even with wearing it lower the two sides were nowhere near meeting. “W-what do you mean, it’s not going to zip? I need to wear this today, I just need to!”

Fearing that she was about to have a breakdown about not being able to get a skirt on that she’d last worn when she was just barely starting to show, Shuichi had to come up with a plan for what to do quickly, and thankfully he had something he could rely on. “I was going to save this for at dinner when you could open it, but it seems you might need it more now than later,” he said, dropping to the floor by the bed and pulling out a gift bag from underneath it, offering it to Kaede once she’d given up on the skirt after trying to force the zipper and hearing it rip, and was now looking for something comparable to wear. “You’ll have to change out of the shirt you picked, but I promise you that it’s going to be worth it.”

“I don’t know if you can live up to that promise, I was really looking forward to wearing the cute outfit I’d picked for myself.” She wanted to take back her words the moment she opened the bag and pulled a pink dress out from within it, nothing too fancy but definitely something she would be interested in wearing. “Oh my god, you didn’t actually go out and buy this for me, did you?”

He shrugged, a playful smile on his lips. “I may have had someone suggest that I get it for you, after they’d seen you considering getting it. It made for a good part of a birthday present, and an even better last-minute outfit change. Go on, wear it right now, it’ll fit you more than the skirt did.” His sentence hadn’t even finished before she was taking her shirt off and throwing it aside, replacing it with the long-sleeved, knee-length dress that she’d just received, and he could feel his chest tightening at how radiant she looked. “Kaede, you need to see yourself in the mirror for this one. You look beyond amazing.”

“I don’t know that’d be possible, but thank you!” She was taking the towel off of her head, sending damp blonde waves cascading down her back and over her shoulders, and he found that the addition of her messy hair made her look even more attractive than she already had. “I’m pretty sure that I look like a girly pig wearing this, even though the dress was definitely cute before it was on me.”

“That’s wrong, Kaede, you wearing it has made it even cuter.” There wasn’t going to be much that he could say to make her see things his way, but he was going to try to convince her through his words anyway. “When I look at you wearing that, I don’t see whatever you said you look like, I see a beautiful woman carrying a child within her, wearing a dress that looks to have been made specially for her. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that you look as great right now as you did on our wedding day.”

“Now you’re just laying it on too thick, there’s no way I could even look half as good as I did then, since I’m like twice the size I used to be and all that.” Even still, Kaede was trying to look at herself as much as she could, but when she could only see the sleeves, her chest, and the curve of her stomach, she was missing a sizeable amount of what Shuichi could see staring at her from a few feet away. “It does look like it’s a cute dress still, which is good for it, but it doesn’t mean anything for me.”

He pointed towards the door to try and get her to head in that direction. “You know where the full-length mirror is, you can look for yourself and see exactly what it means for you. I’m telling you, you look amazing, and you need to accept that.” She shook her head, denying his suggestion on what to do, and his eyes narrowed, trying to get a read on what she was planning on doing instead. “You aren’t taking that off. You’re going to wear that all day, to show everyone how great you look.”

“I wasn’t thinking about taking it off, don’t worry. I’m just…I don’t know, when I get put into a situation like this I’m left just wrapping my head around how different things are right now compared to how they always were.” She was gesturing towards her stomach with one hand, while the other was resting on top of it, fingers lightly drumming. “If this were me back before everything, I’d look stunning in this dress and be proud of it, but now that I’m really super pregnant, things just aren’t like that anymore, you know?”

“I’d say you look stunning right now and should be proud of it still.” It was taking a lot of self-control on his part to not go to her and try to pull her towards the mirror, but forcing her into seeing herself more like he was seeing her would not end well, he knew. If she was going to be convinced to go look in the mirror he’d have to do it without touching her, and he didn’t have much time to keep trying to get her to go look. “I’m being honest, I don’t think that most women would look that good in that dress any time, and yet here you are, being the loveliest woman I’ve ever seen while, what, eight months pregnant?”

“Oh, don’t remind me that things are going to get worse from here,” she said, hanging her head for a moment before sighing. “I suppose I should enjoy what I have while I have it, I’m not exactly going to get smaller until after I’ve had this baby, I shouldn’t be so hard on myself when I’ve still got time to hate how I look later.”

Bringing a hand to his face to pinch the bridge of his nose, Shuichi was going to tell her to not be so negative about herself when she was doing something so incredible, and on her birthday of all days, but she began walking towards the door and he didn’t want to stop her from making her move. That didn’t mean that he followed her through the door when she left the room, and so it was mostly closed in his face, but rather than an apology for the somewhat rude behavior he heard a surprised gasp on the other side. “You looked at yourself, didn’t you?” he asked, wanting to see for himself but not wanting to interrupt her moment of self-love. “I told you, Kaede, you look beyond amazing, and now you know I meant it.”

Her next words were a garbled mess, as she’d started crying about something or other, and that was when he decided it was time for them to focus on leaving for the day. If they were able to leave the house quickly, they’d have enough time to get something to eat before going to what had been planned for them, but if she was crying the chances of that happening were very slim. That was why he had to remind her over and over that they were going to go get food, and in order for them to do that she had to be properly dressed for the occasion, which meant the whole struggle of putting shoes on that she hated and that he felt bad for having to force on her, but soon they were able to leave the house ready for what she thought was going to be lunch and a return home. The lunch part was true, but when he started them in the wrong direction to get home, even with food in a bag at her feet she wasn’t sure what was happening, and once again he had to come up with some reason that was believable and wouldn’t end up being too off-base that it would upset her when the truth came to light.

That was where the concept of them having a quaint picnic lunch at the park came from, as he was taking them to the park anyway, so labeling their visit as a picnic would explain why they had food with them while they were there. She was content with that answer, and he was happy that he had been able to come up with something that she didn’t bother questioning, even if he now had to hope they’d have time to eat before whatever was going to happen happened. They arrived with enough time to spare that they were able to find a table and enjoy most of their meal in the quiet, early-spring day there at the park, but while they were finishing up they were approached by a redhead with a pad of paper in her hand, her looking like she meant business. “Excuse me, don’t mean to interrupt, but are you two the Saiharas?” she asked, looking at them over her papers, watching as they both nodded. “I’m so glad I was able to find you, I parked in the wrong area for this place I suppose! It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“A pleasure to meet us? Who are you?” Kaede was looking at her suspiciously, trying to get a glimpse of what she had written down but unable to do it without making it too obvious what she was doing. “Better yet, what do you want from us?”

“Wow, I now understand why I was warned that there might be a bit of pushiness here.” The woman looked to Shuichi and winked at him, making him tense up as he tried to understand the point of it, before she turned her paper just enough for him to read her name in big letters at the top. It was only when he’d fully read her name, proving that she was the photographer that Maki had told him they’d be taking pictures with, that he understood that she’d winked to let him know she knew Kaede didn’t know a thing. “I should introduce myself before we get going, I’m Mahiru Koizumi, professional photographer and the person in charge of the two of you for the next few hours.”

“Pictures? Today? But I’m not…” Kaede trailed off as she remembered that she _was_ , technically, rather well-dressed for taking pictures, and once that dawned on her she was turned towards Shuichi, a fire in her eyes that he felt intimidated by. “You knew about this, didn’t you? That’s why you gave me this dress, isn’t it?”

Before he could answer and explain that he hadn’t done it intentionally, and that the dress was meant to be a gift for later, Mahiru was speaking again, giving her own response to what Kaede had been trying to say. “It doesn’t matter if you think you’re ready or not, the people who put this together for you made sure to give me everything you’ll need to look your best for your photoshoot. I’ve only done a couple maternity shoots before, but you can count on me and my skill with the camera to get the job done!”

“Wait, what do you mean, they gave you things for her to look her best?” While Shuichi had known about the pictures being scheduled for that day, he’d been told that the photographer would have some of her own materials to use, but it seemed that Mahiru had more than just things she’d brought for herself. “Who was it that gave you something? Who do we need to thank for that?”

Mahiru pursed her lips together as she thought of how to answer the questions, but all she ended up giving was the identities of who’d delivered clothes for the occasion to her. “It was the loud woman and her small friend, or maybe her girlfriend, I didn’t really see them interact,” she admitted, before offering a hand to Kaede to help her up from the table she was sitting at. “We don’t have all the daylight in the world today so it would be best if we start getting ready now, sorry to rush things along. Would it be too much to ask if you could drive me over to where I parked my car, so we can get things going?”

The faster he got them started, the faster he’d be able to thank Tenko and Himiko for their gift they’d managed to keep completely secret the entire time, so after cleaning up the remnants of lunch Shuichi obliged with Mahiru’s request, driving them around the park to find a tent set up in the other parking lot, next to a car that she explained was hers. “So you have your own studio that you bring with you?” he asked, as they were all getting out and heading towards the tent. “That’s convenient, but seems like it might be a lot of work.”

“The work is worth it when I can do on-site makeovers for my pictures if needed. Usually I make it one person at a time in there, but since I’m going to be photographing both of you off and on it’d be easier if you were both inside and changing at once.” That was news to him, as he hadn’t been told he was going to be in any pictures whatsoever, but he wasn’t given a chance to protest the idea. “Not a word against it, your inclusion was a specific request from the guy with the wild hair and I’m not going to turn him down.”

“Sounds exactly like Kaito to do that to you, doesn’t it, Shuichi?” Kaede still wasn’t entirely sure how much she liked the idea of having to do these pictures, but now that she knew it wasn’t just her being thrown into them she could appreciate it a bit more. “We’ll have to thank him once it’s over, and Maki and Tenko and Himiko too, but they weren’t the ones who made you get involved.”

“Something tells me they knew he was going to force it,” he told her, thinking about how there were supposedly clothes there for him and it hadn’t been Kaito or Maki in charge of bringing the clothes in the first place. “They were all in on making this happen, and I’m not…really sure how well this is going to turn out, but we’ll give it our best shot.”

“You two are beyond cute, talking about your friends like that. Must be nice to have so many people around who care, especially in this big and important time in your lives.” Leading them into the tent, Mahiru directed for Shuichi to step behind one of the partitions inside, before she opened up the adjoining flap for herself and Kaede to enter through. “Now, you can pick whatever you want from in there, but make sure that it matches and that you put it on correctly! I’m not a babysitter, I’m not going to fix your collar if you screw it up!”

He laughed, taking her warning to heart, but poor Kaede was not given such a fun statement to get dressed with. She was put through the wringer, having her hair done, some light makeup applied, and several outfits tried on before Mahiru settled on a dress that looked rather similar to the one she’d been wearing, down to the pink color, except it was a much tighter and more summer-like outfit. As she explained, while Kaede was nervously looking at her reflection in the nearby mirror in the tent, “We’re going to do a couple changes before we finish up, so no worries if you don’t think this one looks the best on you, we have plenty of chances to get it right for at least one picture.”

“Can I say that I don’t think it looks good right now?” Kaede’s eyes were fixated on how much cleavage the dress was showing off, and while it wasn’t too revealing it felt like it was more than she was comfortable with. “I’m going to be a mom, not a hooker or something like that. Can’t you put me in a dress that makes me look, well, like I’m a modest person?”

“It does make you look modest, you’ve just got an awful angle of yourself. From where I’m standing,” Mahiru gave a wave from her position a few steps back, “you look pretty great. And once we’ve got you with your husband, you’ll look even greater, guaranteed. I know you’re out of your comfort zone right now, but you have to trust that I know what I’m doing to make this work. Can you do that for me?”

There was a moment in which Kaede considered telling her she couldn’t, but she refrained with a wary smile. “Yeah, I guess I can. I’ll have Shuichi at my side for all of this, and with him I really can do anything, no matter what it is.”

“That’s the spirit! Now let’s go see what kind of poses we can put you in out in the park, we’re burning daylight just sitting here talking.” Motioning towards where they’d come into the little room, Mahiru made sure that Kaede was out before she followed her, stopping to poke her head into the other part to see that Shuichi wasn’t in there any longer. They found him outside, having picked something to wear that, in terms of style, matched what Kaede was wearing to the point that they were able to do what looked like a fashion shoot to start off their session, doing less cuddly poses than they would have expected given what they were there for. Mahiru really seemed to know what she was trying to do with them, though, and so they let her boss them around for her perfect shot as much as she needed to, as long as she was being polite about it.

Each clothing change came after a fair number of pictures, and each time it was an ordeal to get Kaede to like what she was wearing, something that Mahiru stayed calm about as she had to talk the woman through her dislike of her new outfit. It helped that, whenever they’d finish and meet back up with Shuichi, he’d be staring breathlessly at the woman he loved so dearly, beyond impressed with how great she looked. Their pure romance made getting their pictures to feel real and not posed much easier than expected, and Mahiru got to have a lot of fun putting them in awkward positions just to see how they made them seem natural.

The last clothing change was directed by Mahiru, as she told them both that there was something special that she’d been instructed to make them wear for at least one set of pictures. “All of your friends wanted to make sure we got this one to happen, so sorry but there’s no saying no to it,” she said, handing Shuichi a bag that he needed to open, before taking Kaede back into the tent to open her own bag. “I’ve seen what they brought for this and I can’t say I get the reason for it, but maybe it’s a group joke or something and you’ll appreciate it more than I do?”

“If it says anything about mini-me on it, I’m not wearing it,” Kaede firmly stated, wanting to be able to put her foot down about something. “That’s taking things too far and I’m not going to let a certain one of them get his way.” Mahiru didn’t tell her if she was right or wrong, and instead simply handed her bag to her so she could see what was inside for herself. The comment about it being a joke must have been misleading, or maybe it was something that not everyone would fully understand, but Kaede found herself more than okay with needing to wear that specific shirt for even just one picture.

Not every person was going to say that they got to wear custom shirts during a photoshoot, and those who did wouldn’t be able to say they wore shirts even half as cool as the ones they were given for the occasion. Now they not only had shirts from the baby shower, but they had special “Saihara Squad” shirts that they’d be able to keep alongside them, complete with a pink butterfly decal to represent that third member of their family.

_twenty-eight._

Changing back into the clothes they’d gone to the park in after wearing those special shirts was hard, but Mahiru had given them to them right away to keep and re-wear if they wanted. The rest of the clothes, she told them, they could get when they got their pictures, unless they wanted to donate them to her closet for future photoshoots with others, and they replied that they’d think about it while they waited the couple weeks it would take for all of the pictures to be edited, cleaned up, and prepared for delivery. It made sense for most of it to get donated, but for the things that Shuichi had been allowed to pick through, there could possibly be something or another that he felt inclined to keep.

As they were on their way home, all they talked about was the photoshoot and everything that had happened during it, from the outfit changes, to the sometimes ridiculous poses, to the real love that they felt they were able to show as Mahiru was taking pictures. “How did they find someone like her to do this, do you think?” he asked, thinking about how genuinely nice Mahiru had been to them and how professional she’d remained the entire time. “It wouldn’t be like Maki and Kaito to have known of her from personal experience, but there’s no way that she was just a random dartboard selection.”

“She talked a little to me about Hope’s Peak at one point when she was dressing me, so it’s possible that whichever of our friends sent the invitation to the school made a request for some help on finding a photographer,” Kaede replied, smiling as she looked over at Shuichi, who was nodding as he accepted her answer. “She said that she’d heard of me and my piano playing for them from a friend who’s associated with the school, but that she cut ties with the place when she finished attending.”

“Which would mean that it’s likely Kyoko pushed her in their direction, or them in hers, to make this work. Given that she likes things being complicated, I can’t say that’s how it actually went, but it’s a start.” There wasn’t any real need to know how they’d been set up with Mahiru that afternoon, but Shuichi was a detective by trade, he loved solving things regardless of if they needed it. He didn’t want to dwell too much on this case, though, not when there were other, better things that they could be talking about. For instance, bringing up the custom-made shirts they’d been given, that was a safe point of conversation.

That was also something that Kaede was very, very happy about having happened. “I know that they’re getting the shirts from someone none of us, you know, really like, but I think they’re so cute and I’m going to miss having excuses to have my own shirts made for me all the time. I think I’ve gotten super spoiled on them.”

“If it comes down to it, we could always arrange something to have different ones made in the future. You don’t really think Himiko and Tenko are going to stop getting them for us anytime soon though, do you?” Shuichi wasn’t as close with the pair as Kaede was (although he was fairly close with them, they were not strangers by any means), but he knew that they’d keep doing the same thing they were currently doing until they were told to stop, or until their method became inaccessible. “I have a feeling we’ll be dressing our child in custom things for a very long time, so it’s reasonable to assume they’ll keep getting things for you as well.”

“I hope you’re right, I love how cute so much of that stuff they give me is. I mean, what you bought for me is cute too, of course, but…custom sayings on my clothes.” She was gesturing to the dress she was once again wearing, having become very confident in wearing it after some of those things she’d put on for pictures. “This would be a million times better if it had something funny or adorable on it, just saying.”

“No, I think it’s best the way it is, not everything needs to say something to get people’s attention.” Even though he loved how happy she was to get things specially-made for her, there was a part of him that wished she’d not gotten so used to that treatment, especially when what she was wearing looked fine the way she was currently wearing it. “After tonight, after we’ve gone out for dinner and spent the evening together, you can change into whatever cute thing you want and I won’t ask you to wear something not customized again. Is that fine with you?”

She sighed, letting her shoulders sink into her seat. “I guess it’s fine, but only a little fine. It would be more fine if you’d let me, like, wear my new shirt out tonight? Wouldn’t that be fun, us wearing our matching shirts to dinner?”

“Kaede, I love you but no, it really wouldn’t be fun at all. Not for me, anyway.” That was him trying to put his foot down on the matter, but the issue was that telling Kaede no was nearly impossible, especially when she’d start pouting, or puffing her cheeks out, making herself look like she was about to start crying. The last thing he needed was for her to cry and make him feel bad, but this was the one thing he was not going to back down on, not when he’d just given her an agreement that wasn’t anything he actually wanted.

Exactly as he guessed, she closed her mouth and made her cheeks swell with held air, making a disappointed groaning sound for a couple of seconds until she saw that he was holding firm on his position and her behavior wasn’t going to change his mind. “Why won’t you let me live the way I want to right now?” she asked, trying to sink further into her seat but failing to be able to move too much. “There’s already so much I can’t do, and you’re telling me not to do one of the few things I can. That’s so mean, Shuichi, I don’t think I like it.”

“I just want what will probably be our last special night out before we have a child to care for to be something nice, not something that feels like a normal dinner together.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw her open her mouth to give a rebuttal and he cut her off, predicting where she was going to take her argument before she had the chance to do so. “No, reminding me that it’s your birthday isn’t going to make me change my mind. You look lovely in that dress and I want you wearing that while we’re out tonight.”

“You’re being really forceful,” she said after a couple seconds of reeling from how easily she’d been read. “I must say, I kinda like this side of you when it comes out. Mind bringing him around for me more?”

The quick change in how she was interacting with him caused him to give a hollow laugh for a moment as he mentally debated how any possible reaction would turn out. He ultimately went with the one he felt would be safest, and keep making his stance on their previous topic known: “I’ll bring him out as much as you’d like me to, as long as you follow my one request for tonight and keep wearing that dress.”

Kaede put a couple fingers to her cheek and tapped them as she considered the offer, but by that point he’d already known he’d won and hearing her say whatever she had was just a cherry on top. “Hard bargain, but I’ll do it if it means hearing you be bossy.”

“Then I guess what we’re doing tonight is settled.” That was a definitive end to their discussion, and for the rest of what little afternoon they had left, they were back at home doing their everyday things. She was playing on her piano, the only song that she’d play being the one she’d written herself, and he was reading through some case files that had been closed but he felt could still use further investigating, the sound of the music a perfect soundtrack to work to. There was something that he knew needed to be addressed as he listened to her playing, but he also knew that it was a conversation that he wasn’t ready for, and her preparedness for it wasn’t exactly determined.

They could just handle that at a later date, it didn’t need to happen there on her birthday of all days. The last thing he needed was to start stressing her out over the fact that they were in dire need of any solid possibilities of a name for their baby, and that the time they had left to determine it was fast slipping through their fingers. While he was fine with waiting until they properly saw her to name her, it would be disastrous to not have any names in mind before then, so coming up with even a list was necessary, yet he didn’t want to talk about it with Kaede unless she brought it up first, under her own power. Her well-being was what needed to be in mind at that point, even if being mindful of it meant hesitating longer and longer on one of the most important things in the child-bearing process.

As she played, she seemed too focused on making sure all of her notes sounded correct to be thinking about anything else, so even testing the waters to see what she might have thought up wasn’t possible. And when she finished playing, and told him that she was getting hungry and tired and that they should do something about one before she acted on the other, he knew that she wasn’t going to suddenly bring up something that they’d barely talked about in recent memory. All she was going to want right then would be him making good on his offer of a nice dinner between just the two of them, and nothing else would be satisfactory until that was taken care of.

Their meal was a lot more peaceful than the one they’d had for Maki’s birthday, mostly thanks to it just being the two of them sitting at the table. They had casual conversation between being served and eating, but it wasn’t anything exciting after the day they’d had, and all the days they’d had before it. Despite it being a time in their lives where peace and calmness should have been desired before they lost it completely, neither of them had been very good at keeping things from getting busy, even if what they were doing was rather routine day in and day out. He wasn’t going to bore her with talking about his work, and she wasn’t going to bore him with talking about what she’d done with her music, but that was so much of what they did in a normal day that finding things to talk about without mentioning those topics was hard.

Somehow, though, they made it work, and that was how, in the middle of eating, Kaede was able to say something that caught Shuichi off-guard but wasn’t completely disruptive. “I, uh, don’t know if you knew this but I ended up talking to my parents a couple days ago,” she said, bringing her hands close to her chest as she spoke. “I mean, I didn’t think you’d want to know, we haven’t really spoken to them in a long time for more than a few words, but it happened and I guess you _should_ know that it did.”

“I had a feeling you’d been talking to someone, but I couldn’t place my finger on who it was. Thank you for telling me it was them, rather than someone we actually don’t care for.” If she’d said she’d spoken with his parents, it would be a different story entirely, but her parents had seemed like nice people the couple times he’d met them, and they really cared for their daughter even as she’d grown completely independent of them. “How are they doing, did you talk about them at all? Or was it just about you?”

“They called to wish me a happy birthday and to ask about the baby, it wasn’t too much and no, we didn’t talk any about them other than that they’re okay. Talking to them’s just weird whenever they force it, so I kind of made it seem like I was busy.” She laughed, her hands fidgeting but not too much. “I told them we’d tell them when she’s born and they didn’t even get upset that I didn’t ask if they wanted to see her or anything. Growing up’s weird, but I guess it all works out in the end, right?”

He thought about his own parents and how he hadn’t talked to them in so long that he could only vaguely remember their voices and speech patterns, and nodded. “It does work out exactly how it’s supposed to. You found a new family in me, just like I found one in you, and they distanced themselves from you so that’s their decision, not yours.” There was so much more he could have mentioned, about how they had friends who were better than almost anyone they were related to by blood, or about how if they needed a parental figure in their lives that cared they could always talk to his uncle, who was the only actual family member between the two of them that they actively cared about. “If I were in your shoes, I’d have only answered that call to see if there were any issues that needed solving.”

“There weren’t, I doubt they would have told me if there were. They barely care about their grandchild, it’s strange, but they still care about her more than they do me. That’s okay, though, it really is.” Based on how her voice was starting to get pitchy, it was obvious she wasn’t as fine with the distance between herself and her parents as she was pretending to be, but Shuichi didn’t want to make her talk about it more. The fact that she’d brought them up in the first place was amazing enough, when he knew how she felt about how they’d cut her off when she’d chosen love over pursuing a serious career with her piano-playing skills.

All he could bring himself to do was give her a wary smile and offer her a strong hand to hold as she kept trying to keep her brave face on. “Don’t get upset over them, Kaede. They weren’t worth it before and they certainly aren’t worth it now. They’re the ones who chose to push aside their child because they didn’t like what she wanted to do, they don’t need to be involved in what she’s become now.”

“Th-thanks, Shuichi, I needed to hear that.” Reaching out a shaky hand to grab his, there were hints of a smile forming on Kaede’s face as she laced her fingers between his, them holding each other’s hand tightly for a few moments over their half-eaten food before going back to what they’d been doing before. The next time she spoke, it wasn’t nearly as sad as it had been before, even though she had definitely been thinking about it while she’d continued eating. “Wouldn’t it be funny if they sent us something for her, huh? Can you imagine that, getting a box of baby stuff from them that we’re supposed to appreciate but because it’s from them, we can’t actually enjoy at all?”

Understanding why she had latched onto the idea of her parents trying to reconnect with them because of the approaching arrival of their first grandchild, Shuichi didn’t want her letting her mind linger on it for too much longer. “It would be more appreciated than if my parents were to try sending anything, but we do have to keep in mind that none of this is going to happen. They’ll keep their distance because they want you to bridge the gap, they want to do zero of the work needed to fix what problems they caused. It’s, well, their problem to solve and they’re not going to solve it with kindness.”

“I wish they would, we could always use more free stuff to fill her room with,” she replied with a laugh, showing how serious she was about not wanting to enjoy anything her parents might potentially send. “I’m not expecting them to send anything, don’t worry. I’m still going to send them everything we send our friends, because that’s what’s right, but they’re not getting any special treatment just because they’re my parents. If they wanted that treatment, they shouldn’t have gotten upset I married you.”

“Hey now, they were upset before we got married, because I wasn’t some kind of musical genius or someone with a skill that could be easily marketed. They thought you marrying a guy who makes his living solving small crimes was the worst thing that could happen to you, but it was in fact the best thing.” He was talking himself up a bit, he knew, but he was also reassuring Kaede that anything her parents were trying to do to her right then wasn’t right and that she couldn’t try falling for their behavior. His attempt at steering her away from that dangerous mindset seemed to be working, because she didn’t say another word about it that night, something he was thankful for.

That just happened to be one of the few issues of having quiet dinners together, the fact that they could have deep, real conversations that left them both a bit emotionally drained. If they were out with friends, there would be bickering and arguing at times, but at the end of the night they were all closer to each other for it, and someone usually had learned a lesson in how to respect others. With it being just the two of them, there was no chance of comic relief, no openings for someone to do dumb things and get scolded for it where everyone around them could hear. They were left with all their insecurities and problems and had the chance to spill them for the other to see, and while it made them grow closer every time it happened, it still ripped open emotional wounds that they didn’t want to deal with.

So her birthday dinner was considered a success in that nothing bad had happened and they were able to share a meal together, and could return home in somewhat good spirits and take in the rest of the night together, but it was a failure in terms of keeping both parties happy. It was not going to be possible to get her to admit that she’d upset herself by talking about her parents, and he hurt whenever she was hurting, but pretending nothing had happened was just as bad as letting what did happen linger in their hearts.

But going home to giving her several presents—one of which was a promise to try and go out on dates once a month even after they had a baby to take care of, which she was happy to hear about—did allow for their moods to shift back upward before they tucked in for the night. Even before then, when they were getting ready for bed and talking about small things that they had on their minds before shifting into a mode they’d stayed away from for most of the past several months, they were back on their way to being happy in each other’s company. A lot of things had changed for them, but their love was forever going to be a constant, and neither of them would ever want to lose what they had, even if acting on it was never going to be the same.

 _twenty-nine_.

For as fast as everything had been going in their lives, after Kaede’s birthday it all seemed to come crawling to a stop, time barely passing at even a fraction of the speed it had been before. It was strange, especially since if anything there was more going on then than there had been at any other point, but there was very little that could be done about it. Now was the time to start planning things out for the coming weeks, when everything was going to change rapidly and without pause once it started happening, and Shuichi was trying his best not to let it all start to get to him. He was juggling that possibility with trying to take on more tasks at work and keeping everything at home relatively organized, not wanting to burden her with needing to do too much more than she absolutely needed to, and it was starting to weigh on him.

But all he could think was that if he was feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything he was trying to do, how would she feel if she were in his shoes as well as her own? She wasn’t at the point of struggling to get through anything, but he could tell that she was going to be there rather soon, and given how protective he was of her in her current state he wanted to make sure that he never had to see her struggling. If that meant doing everything for her, except things that she had to do herself, then he was fine with doing it; he was trying his hardest to be the best husband and father he could, and every time he’d see the thankful look in her eyes after he’d done something she needed done, it made him feel like he was achieving that goal.

Naturally, though, not everyone was as focused on what was best for others as he was, and when one of the worst offenders of the self-focused mindset was someone that they were incredibly close with, it was never going to end well. Inviting Kaito over wasn’t something that either of them did, he usually just let himself in the front door and acted like he was meant to be there, and trying to lock him out was pointless as he knew where the spare key was hidden—underneath a flower planter in front of the house, somewhere that it wasn’t supposed to be when they were home but Shuichi was often too busy to remember to move it, and Kaede wasn’t going to try to go retrieve it by herself in case she got stuck bent over. So Kaito getting inside the house was _really_ their fault, and that was why they couldn’t force him to leave whenever he would show up, because he could remind them that he’d let himself in because of something they’d set up.

He wasn’t as bad about the baby thing as he had been in the past, he was still insistent on calling her mini Kaede at every moment and still tried to get to feel her even if it wasn’t a great moment for the attempts, but he was a lot more understanding about the fact that those habits weren’t appreciated all the time. If he was told to stop talking, or to stop trying to get too close, he would respect the request and go find something else to do for a little bit, and that made being around him a lot more bearable than it had been. At the same time, his excitement about his so-called sidekick having a child had reached an all-time high and he did have a hard time reining that it at times, which resulted in a few instances of him being snapped at for being too loud, or too rough, and that he needed to learn to behave.

For the most part, he could do it, but there were still times where “behaving” was not what he intended on doing, and that was clearest when he came over early on his birthday. “Listen, Maki Roll made me change what I wanted to do a few times just to be all-inclusive or whatever, so you’ve gotta come out with us because you’ll be able to,” he told Kaede once he’d gone through the usual routine of greeting her and the baby in one breath. “It’s not like we’re gonna be out late, or doing anything rough, but it’s my birthday and you’re invited to come celebrate with me in style.”

“I’m not really interested in going out at all today, sorry,” she apologized in return, not wanting to look away from the newly-delivered pictures from her maternity shoot (that she had laid out on the closed piano keys) while knowing that he was not going to take her rejection without a fight and steeling herself for what she was sure was coming. “Shuichi will go with you, definitely, but I’m going to take it easy and stay home tonight, so you all can tell me how it goes tomorrow or something!”

“No way, Kaede! Didn’t you hear me? I had to change my plans just so you can come, there’s no backing out of what we’re doing!” Punching a fist into his other open hand, Kaito gave her a determined look that told her that she wasn’t nearly mentally prepared enough for the persuasion he was going to try on her. “You don’t even have to play, you can sit and watch the rest of us and that’s fine, but you’ve gotta be there at minimum!”

Taking in a deep breath, she looked him straight in the eyes before shaking her head firmly, defying what he’d just told her she needed to do. “I’m sorry, but I’m not going out tonight, even if it’s with you, Maki, and Shuichi, and even if it’s for your birthday. The three of you can have fun without me, I’m just…not really meant to be going out late anymore.”

“Are you even listening to me? I said you just have to be there, you don’t have to do anything with us!” She knew that it wasn’t her having problems with listening, but calling attention to that would do nothing but fuel the fire of his insistence. “All I’m asking is that we’re all out together for the night, even if you’re just sitting around watching the rest of us. I know that it’ll be ten times more fun if you’re there watching us, and a million times more than that if you actually participate, but I got warned that you might not want to do anything except watch so that’s why that’s an option.”

“I’ll have to thank Maki for talking sense into you about forcing me to participate, but she should’ve done a better job of telling you I might not be interested.” Her mind racing to come up with some good way to get her unwavering stance through Kaito’s thick head, because clearly her sitting at her bench with it having to be pulled back slightly from the piano so she could sit without her stomach brushing the keys when she played or their cover when she was just sitting there wasn’t enough, she turned her eyes towards the blackboard on the wall and an idea came to her. “Say, Kaito, can you read to me what the board says? About the fruit size?”

He looked at her, confused about what she was getting at, before going along with her request anyway. “Sure thing, it says that the baby’s the size of a honeydew melon right now, what’s the point of having me read that? I knew that from when you posted your picture with it the other day, me and Maki went and looked at the melons at the market the next day to really understand what that means.”

“Okay, let me get this straight, you _know_ how big that is and yet you’re still expecting me to…right, of course you are, who am I kidding.” Carefully standing up from the bench, making sure not to trip herself over the corner because of still not being used to where it had been moved to, she put her hands on her hips and stood as straight and tall as she could, letting the large, rounded curve of her stomach be as obvious as possible. “Kaito, look at me and tell me that you want me to go out and do something with you for your birthday, even though inside me there’s a baby the size of a small melon.”

“I want you to go out and do something with me for my birthday, I don’t know why you think I’m gonna change my mind on that when I already know how big mini Kaede in there is.” He was looking at her, exactly as she’d told him to, and so she could see the confident smile on his face, the way he had zero intentions of backing down from what he thought she needed to do in order to make his birthday a good one.

Knowing that this was a losing battle she was fighting, and that all she was going to accomplish was tire herself out with arguing, she sat back down and gave in on one condition. “I’ll talk to Shuichi about if he thinks that I should go out with you guys tonight or not, and if he says I shouldn’t then I’m not doing it, got it? You’ll listen to whatever he says about what I do, so I’ll listen to him too.”

“Uh, yeah, I’ll listen to whatever Shuichi says, dude’s smarter than I am and he usually knows what’s up.” If she wasn’t as pregnant as she was, there was a real chance that Kaede would have strangled Kaito for that comment, implying that her husband knew what was better for her than she did, but all she could do was sit and glare at him. She had hoped that now that they’d settled things for the moment, perhaps he would get that she wasn’t thrilled with him and leave, but in true Kaito fashion he sat around and kept trying to talk to her up until when Shuichi came home, not surprised in the slightest to see his best friend there.

This lack of surprise came because Maki came inside with him. “I told you not to come over here and start bothering Kaede until all four of us could be here at once,” Maki scolded, when she saw Kaito sheepishly wave at her from where he was sitting on the floor. “Let me guess, you tried guilting her into coming out with everyone tonight, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t do anything like that, I just told her that you made me change the plans for her and that she had to be there, even if she doesn’t do anything!” Not realizing that he’d just proven to her that he had, in fact, done what he was being accused of, Kaito jumped to his feet and bypassed Maki entirely, going to Shuichi and putting his hands on his shoulders, shaking him back and forth a bit. “C’mon dude, you’ve gotta convince her that we need her with us tonight, she said that she’d listen if you said she has to go!”

“I’m afraid I wasn’t even aware we were going anywhere,” Shuichi admitted, going with the shaking that Kaito was forcing him through even though he would have preferred to be left alone. “Could you at least tell me what your plans are before you try getting me involved in them, so I can make a proper decision on if I’m going, let alone if Kaede is.”

Kaito pulled his hands back and laughed, “Right, sorry about that, bro! I guess I got so caught up in you walking in with Maki Roll that I forgot she might not have told you what the plan is so you’d already know it. We’re going out bowling tonight, because she says that it’s safer than any of the other things I wanted to do. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s something that we can go out and all do together for a bit.”

“And you’re wanting Kaede to go out with you for it?”

“You and her both, yeah. She doesn’t have to play, she can just sit and watch, but she’s gotta be there with us. You know how it gets, we need a witness in case the game’s close or something.” He was laughing still, while Shuichi was glancing towards Kaede and taking note of how irritated she looked at the whole ordeal. “So go on, tell her she’s gotta come out, then we can make plans for when and where.”

“Wouldn’t you think that perhaps Kaede should be the one deciding for herself?” he asked, seeing how her expression hadn’t changed slightly during any of what Kaito had just said. “I know that you want me to put my foot down and make her do something, but she’s the pregnant one here, she should be the one making the choices for herself.”

Silently mouthing a thank you to her husband, so that Kaito didn’t know how she really felt, Kaede then said, “I didn’t even know what you wanted to go out and do until right now, and if I’d known that before maybe I’d considered going, but I’ve wasted too much energy arguing about this stupid thing all day so I really, really don’t want to go. Sorry, you heard Shuichi say I should make the choice myself, and there’s my choice right there.”

If that were where things ended, it would have become a peaceful night for her, but for some reason her voice was ignored and a little while later she was being dragged out with everyone else, under the promise that she didn’t have to do anything but sit and watch the other three playing. She was displeased beyond imagination, and the others who weren’t involved in forcing her weren’t happy about it either, but when they got to the little bowling alley and she saw that they had somewhat comfortable chairs for her to sit and watch in, she decided she could try to make the best of being forced to attend. Then that got pulled out from beneath her when someone decided she should play one game with them anyway, even though she’d been brought out under the promise that she wouldn’t have to play at all.

After being forced into getting proper shoes on (that barely fit her feet and were more uncomfortable than she could explain in words), she rolled the ball exactly one time before declaring that she was done with the game for the night, and because her “game” had already been paid for it meant that everyone else had extra frames to play with. As they were sorting out what to do with her frames, she was trying to get the shoes off her feet, but because of how tightly she’d wedged them on it was impossible without being able to reach down and grab them for herself. While she could get a couple fingers into position, she couldn’t make any progress on her own, and so she was left sitting there, too-tight shoes on her feet, angry that she’d been tricked and lied to and put into that position in the first place.

Eventually Shuichi looked away from the game long enough to see her struggling and helped her get the shoes off, apologizing the entire time about how he should have put his foot down, about how he had failed her by making her come out in the first place. “It’s not your fault that Kaito’s an idiot,” she replied, trying not to come off as angry to her husband when he’d tried his best to help her before. “That’s all on him, you know? Now will you give me one of those shoes before you take them back, there’s something I want to do with it.”

Knowing deep down that he shouldn’t indulge Kaede on her request, he decided to do it anyway because she deserved it—and it was satisfying to hear the loud _thwap_ of the shoe hitting the back of Kaito’s head, followed by him yelling and her laughing about it.


	7. Chapter 7

_thirty._

That week marked the beginning of the end, as the doctor worded it during their visit, as from there on out the appointments were going to be weekly, just to keep on top of everything and anything that might be happening with the baby. Adding that commitment to the list of things to take care of was just another drop in the bucket in Shuichi’s mind, but for Kaede it was more times that she’d have to get dressed and leave the house, when all she wanted to do was relax and do nothing most of the time. Some days it was hard for her to change out of her pajamas, but if she was going to have to leave the house at least once a week, she’d have to hope that she’d find the motivation to do that so she wasn’t showing up at the clinic looking almost homeless.

Her aversion to getting dressed most days was something that Shuichi knew very well, and he was fully prepared to see her looking exactly the same when he left for work as she did when he got home. She wasn’t even bothered by being dressed down when friends came over, because they’d gotten to know her well enough that their opinions of her weren’t going to change just because she wasn’t properly dressed. So it came as quite a surprise when he came home a couple days after that “beginning of the end” appointment and saw her sitting on the floor, some pillows propped up behind her so she could lay back comfortably, wearing actual clothing and looking like she had just gotten into that position. “I didn’t see that anyone was here,” he remarked, checking back out the front door to make sure he hadn’t missed any vehicles outside. “Who came over to get you in that position?”

“That would be me, sorry about that.” The voice wasn’t one that Shuichi was used to hearing inside his house—and in fact, he was certain he’d never heard it there before, even though he recognized it immediately. The speaker came out of the kitchen, holding a tiny glass bottle in one hand and waving with the other, leaving the entirety of his pale blue shirt visible to be recognized as well. “Himiko helped me get over here, kind of as a surprise for Kaede because I, well, wasn’t here for her on her special day.”

“I understand, it’s good to have you here with us today, Rantaro.” Bowing his head respectfully, Shuichi watched the visitor take a seat right by Kaede’s feet, opening the bottle and keeping the lid in his hand as he set the bottle aside before picking one of her feet up and setting it on his leg. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing?”

“He’s painting my nails, can’t you tell?” she answered, while Rantaro worked silently, his eyes and hands focused on what he was doing. “He said when he got here that he didn’t have a gift but would do something nice like that for me, and since I haven’t…you know, been able to see my toes in a while I thought it was silly but he insisted.”

Holding back a chuckle at how silly that did seem, Shuichi watched Rantaro work for a moment before noticing that the back of his shirt had all of the baby shower information on it, even though he hadn’t attended. It made sense that he’d have the shirt if he’d been invited and hadn’t been able to make it, and the fact that he was wearing it proved that he would have come if it were possible, but something wasn’t making sense to Shuichi and he wanted to know more about it. “Say, Rantaro, if you weren’t here, how’d you end up with a shirt from the shower?”

“I got it from Himiko before she dropped me off, she was holding onto it for me. She and Tenko, they both knew I wanted to come but wasn’t going to be in town. Told them to keep me being invited a secret, I didn’t want you and Kaede getting disappointed I didn’t make time right then. Would have if I could have, but it wasn’t in the cards.” As he was talking, he was still wholly focused on painting her toenails, carefully making sure not to get a drop of the bright pink polish on her skin or the floor. “Made it to town for the weekend, decided I’d stop by to check on you both while I’m around.”

“He’s been here for a few hours, we’ve mostly been playing catch-up but we did talk about an important thing or two,” Kaede said, laying back on her pillows and looking easily the most peaceful she’d been in a long while. “Don’t worry, Shuichi, I didn’t agree to anything and I didn’t tell Rantaro anything he’s not supposed to know.”

“That’s good, because I can’t think of anything that he shouldn’t know.” Joining them both on the floor, Shuichi couldn’t help but smile at how content Kaede was with getting her nails painted, even though it was a simple gesture. “You’re going to tell me what you were talking about if it did include me, right?”

She closed her eyes and gave him a soft _mhmm_ that made him expect something to follow, but what he got was more explanation from Rantaro. “She told me that you still haven’t come up with a name for the little one and I figured I could toss around a couple suggestions, even if they weren’t good names. I think I got the wheels turning in her mind, but it might’ve been making her think about music, not naming a child.”

“It was both,” she replied, cracking an eye open to see how both men weren’t focusing on what she was doing anymore. “I did start thinking about the song I made for her, her lullaby that I’m going to name after her once she’s got a name, but that didn’t lead me anywhere good. Then you said something else that got me thinking about actually good possible names, even though I don’t have one yet.”

“Right, I mentioned that you could name her after a type of music if you wanted to. You didn’t seem to jump on that idea though, so I didn’t pay much attention to it.” Carefully moving her foot off of his leg, Rantaro picked up the polish bottle as he stood, moving to her other side just to sit back down and start working on painting the other toes. “I didn’t expect much to come out of what I said, it’s not like I have any experience naming children.”

“A type of music,” Shuichi repeated under his breath, as Kaede was telling Rantaro something about how he was being helpful even without experience. “Maybe there’s a way to work with that to come up with a good name after all. We’d just have to look into that as a starting point.”

All of what he’d said wasn’t clearly audible to the others, something Rantaro pointed out once he was done talking to Kaede. “Not sure if you wanted us to hear what you said, but I know I wasn’t hearing a word of it.”

“No, no, I was just…talking to myself,” he said, being truthful but knowing that he probably sounded suspicious at the same time. “It wasn’t anything important, you just had me realize something I can’t believe I hadn’t actually thought of before.”

“Always nice to know I can be of help to an old friend.” Rantaro was still working on finishing painting Kaede’s nails, but he was not as focused on the task as he had been before. “Whatever I did, I’m sure it’s great.”

“I’m curious to know what it is, but I bet you’ll wait until way later to tell me,” Kaede said, relaxing against the pillows some more. “That’s fine by me, I’m probably going to fall asleep here with how comfy I am right now. Who would’ve guessed, me on some pillows on the floor would make me comfier than I ever get in bed?”

True to her word, she was dozing off within minutes, at about the same time that Rantaro finished his work and was putting the lid back on the polish. “I was going to offer to do her fingernails as well, but there’s no point in waking her up for it. If she wants those done, she can do them herself.” He made sure it was tightened properly before standing up and walking towards the shelf he’d grabbed it from, which was cluttered with all sorts of junk that Shuichi never knew where it came from. “You married a nice one, the two of you are perfect for each other. Does it feel real that you’re going to be parents next month?”

“It feels real whenever I look at Kaede and think about how far she’s come since we first found out, but I don’t think it’ll hit me until we’re able to hold her in our arms.” Also standing up, Shuichi joined Rantaro by the shelf, the two of them looking at the cluttered mess without commenting on it. “I bet it’s been weird for you to walk in here and see her like that, when the last time you saw her was—”

“A long time ago, I know.” Rantaro rolled his shoulders, popping them as he did, before giving Shuichi a smile. “It has been weird, but at the same time I knew it was coming before I walked in. I’ve known almost as long as everyone else, I just hadn’t seen a picture or anything of how she looked until she opened the door for me earlier.”

The whole story of what he’d been doing and why he’d been so isolated that he hadn’t been able to see anything was one that Shuichi wanted to hear, but he didn’t want to ask about it right then. “It’s been a lot to take in, being here for every little piece of it, so I’m sure it came as a shock to you to see how…well, great she looks.”

“That isn’t how I would word it for myself, but seeing her in person did take my breath away for a moment. The Kaede I remember was quite a bit different than the one I spent today with, but I know they’re still the same person.” His smile fading back to a straight-lipped expression, Rantaro turned his whole body, looking at Kaede and how she was sleeping on the floor, looking peaceful as she lay there. “Especially when she starts talking about music, then you really know she’s the same. Does she usually play several songs for whoever walks into the house, or was that a new thing?”

“That’s a thing she does, especially since there isn’t much else she can do besides play her piano anymore.” Shuichi’s mind was still wrapped up on what he’d said before, about how great she looked, and he was struggling to envision her any way but the way she currently was, even though he knew that he could do it with ease. He knew that it wasn’t that she hadn’t been beautiful before, but rather that her being pregnant had made her even more beautiful in his eyes, but there was something about seeing her like she was, carrying _his_ child within her and not complaining about it, that was sticking in his mind. There wasn’t any way he could tell Kaede how much he appreciated her and what she’d gone through for him, for their family, but he wished he could let her know just what he thought.

“You’re thinking about Kaede again, guess that shows how much you really love her.” He didn’t know when Rantaro had started looking at him again but he’d just been called out correctly and he didn’t know how to react. “Hey, no worries, if she were my woman I’d be thinking about her all the time too, I’m sure. You lucked out getting her for yourself and you should enjoy every moment she’s yours.”

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to be taking that,” he replied after a couple moments of trying to formulate a solid response. “I think it’s a positive thing, but I’m not sure.”

Rantaro gave a breathy laugh, hanging his head as he shook it. “It’s definitely positive, don’t worry. The two of you give me hope for whenever I can finally settle down, and I appreciate that. I need a love like yours in my life.”

“You’ll find it, somewhere, I know you will.” This was awkward, and Shuichi wished he could be done with the conversation, but he knew that as long as Kaede was asleep that Rantaro would not want to leave, and that meant that he was going to be responsible for entertaining him in the meantime. That was the end of their talk about romance, thankfully, but it was still over an hour until Kaede woke up, disoriented and confused as to why she was sleeping on the floor, and that meant over an hour of catching up with someone he hadn’t spoken to in a very long time.

Not just that, but after she was awake and they had all talked between the three of them for a while, it was a silent ride to take him back to where he was staying while he was in town, neither man wanting to say anything and Kaede kind of only half-present as she was staring out the window in a daze. It wasn’t a bad visit, all things considered, but it definitely left them all with no clue of what there was left to be said just because of how long it had been since any of them had seen each other. On the way back home, Kaede said it best when she looked over at Shuichi and saw how he was still not talking, despite Rantaro not being there any longer: “He’s sweet and all, but he’s got a weird presence that I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about it. I’m glad he got to visit, but some warning would have been nice.”

 _thirty-one_.

Setting up the blackboard with the week’s information for reaching thirty-eight weeks was almost as special as it had been when they’d prepared to announce that the baby was a girl, even though there wasn’t actually anything important being said that week. The only thing that made it feel more special was that, in place of some kind of cutesy comment about something that was going on with the baby herself, Kaede had chosen to write a message about how they’d _finally_ decided on a name for her, and that they’d all get to know it whenever she decided to make her appearance into the world.

This decision was not exactly supported by Shuichi, because he wasn’t fully sure that the name they’d been bouncing around was going to be their final choice, but she made it clear that she wasn’t going to say the actual name right then, and therefore a little white lie wasn’t the end of the world. “Okay, but what if someone asks you and you tell them because they’re your friend?” he suggested, knowing that Tenko or Himiko would react to that news by wanting to force the reveal for themselves, and that Kaede wasn’t necessarily going to be able to resist their requests. “Then what happens if we change our minds when we meet her?”

“I promise I’m not going to tell anyone what we’re thinking of naming her, we’re still not going to fully decide until we see her and know if her name fits, we’ve talked about this only a million times this week!” Putting the finishing touches on the message, Kaede set her piece of chalk aside and admired her handiwork for a moment, before looking to Shuichi. “I think if we start thinking about her having a name, it’ll make the fact that she can come at any moment now feel less scary, you know?”

“Don’t talk like that, she’s not…you’re not…” He shifted his eyes away from meeting with hers so that he didn’t have to face the reality she was presenting for him, but all that happened was he saw that she’d written that, more or less, on the board. Escaping the fact that she was at the point where the baby could be born any day was just not going to be possible anymore, and as excited as he was to get to meet her he was beyond terrified for everything that was going to happen before then. There was no sense in dwelling on it, not when it was a foregone conclusion that it was going to happen sooner or later, so he did what he needed to do by hanging the board up first, then helping Kaede get to her feet without letting her struggle too much.

Looking at her, it was beyond obvious that she was in the last few weeks of her pregnancy, with how she looked like she was hiding a full-size watermelon underneath her shirt, and making very little effort to make it look convincing. Over the previous week or so there had been a noticeable shift in how the baby was positioned, moving a bit lower in preparation for being born, but all it had done was make her even more unsteady on her feet. Twice in that week she’d fallen down just walking around the house, her balance completely shot with how much the extra weight she was carrying had changed where it was being held, and both times he’d been worried that she’d hurt herself or the baby, even though they were completely fine and able to move past things without issue.

It was getting to the point that all of those cute clothes she’d been given over time were starting to fit improperly, the shirts never quite long enough to account for a lower-resting baby. The only things that she could count on fitting her reliably were any of the dresses she’d been given as well as a single shirt that she hadn’t actually worn before and had zero intentions on wearing until the moment presented itself, which meant that unless she wanted to show off a sliver of stretch-marked skin she was wearing nothing but dresses. She was fine with that, as they were a lot more comfortable than having to put pants on, but even some of the dresses were taking a lot of readjusting to get them to stay in a place where they were covering everything that needed to be covered.

“I’m not what, you never finished what you were saying,” Kaede reminded him, once she was to her feet and leaning against the wall to make sure that she fully had her balance. “Which is kind of suspicious for you, Shuichi, you usually don’t let yourself trail off like you did there.”

“Sorry about that, it wasn’t anything important.” He was still looking at the board and not at her, not wanting to keep entertaining the thought that they were as close to done with this journey as they actually were. “Just started thinking about how weird it is that we started this back at, what, eight weeks? And now we’re at thirty-eight, and so much has happened but we’re still mostly the same, aren’t we?”

She laughed, pushing herself off the wall to grab him in a hug that nearly sent them both to the floor with the unexpected force behind it. Once they’d both caught their breath at the shock of the experience, she was holding onto him tightly as they were both looking at the board, her trying to get him to wrap an arm around her for support without making it too obvious that she wanted it. “I wouldn’t say that I’m anywhere close the same, but you? Aside from being mentally ready to be a dad, I don’t think much else has changed with you.”

“Yeah, you might be right about that.” That was when Shuichi looked to Kaede and saw her focused entirely on her handiwork, reading over the carefully-written words on the board that she’d been so sure to update every week without fail, no matter how she felt or what was going on around them. She really had changed so much throughout everything, while he hadn’t gone through nearly as much, and she was still moving forward with a smile, with a focus on what was going to come next for them both. She was counting down the weeks until she was free there on her board, and now the end goal was in sight.

The end goal of them being parents.

 _thirty-two_.

Those last couple weeks were the longest waiting game that Kaede could ever recall having to be part of, and that counted being a child waiting for vacations or for school to be done for break. She was physically miserable, she was beyond tired all the time, and despite knowing how painful and stressful it would be she was ready to have that baby and call the whole thing over. This was a burden that she had to bear alone, even though she had Shuichi there the entire time trying to keep her somewhat content and her spirits raised, but no matter what he did he couldn’t take away the fact that she was ready to be done.

Every day that they got closer to her marked due date was one less day of having to continue being in such a state, and whereas she’d been counting weeks before, she was now mentally counting the days until everything should have been finished. But aside from aches and pains (and the occasional weak contraction that would get her hopes up for more, as strange as it seemed), nothing was giving any indication that they were going to get to hold their baby in their arms the day they thought they would. This was confirmed by the doctor at the forty week visit, who said that, without any intervention, there wasn’t exactly a guarantee that there’d be a birth anytime soon, and that the child could hang on as long as possible if she really wanted to.

Since it wasn’t in their best interest to let that happen, the discussion of a planned induction came up and while sooner was better, given that she was as ready as she’d ever be, there was something in the back of Kaede’s mind keeping her from agreeing to going in as early as the next day. “I agreed to do something next week,” she recalled, making the doctor question her about what could be more important than a healthy child. “It’s nothing crazy, don’t worry! I’m just playing the piano for an event at a high school, it’s not going to be too much work and I think if there’s not much of a chance of me going into labor during the event then maybe it would be—”

“Are you hearing yourself right now?” Shuichi interrupted, catching the doctor’s look of disbelief as they both heard what she was saying. “You’re considering putting that show or whatever it is before yourself and our baby? Not only that, but you’re expecting me to go along with it?”

“—come on, Shuichi, I promise it’ll all work out if we let it! I can’t let them down, and while yeah, I thought doing this for them would be easier because I thought that we’d be past this by now, if nothing’s happening then I don’t want to force it until after the show!” Clasping her hands together, almost as if she was about to beg to get her way, Kaede looked between her husband and the doctor, both of them still in shock at what they’d heard, for various reasons. “Please, let’s just schedule whatever it is we have to do to get her out for after what I have to do for Hope’s Peak, and if anything goes weird before then we’ll handle it as it happens. I really can’t let them down.”

Shuichi thought about Kyoko and how he knew that she’d understand without question if something forced Kaede to pull out of her performance, but he knew that telling her that would not get them anywhere. “I suppose that there’s no use in arguing with you about this, you’ll just stress yourself out and I don’t think that would be a good thing.”

“I knew you’d see things my way,” she replied, not even caring that he was conceding only for her physical health. “So let’s just plan for that, and I promise that if _anything_ changes, we’ll take care of it as needed. I’m not going to let myself suffer in pain because of this show, but if nothing’s happening then we can just wait until next week. I know I’m not going to regret this decision.”

“Those are famous last words if I’ve ever heard any.” While he admired Kaede’s insistence on sticking to her commitment and working other plans around it, he still disliked the fact that she’d committed to the show in the first place, even though this had been a possibility all along. The one positive note was that there didn’t seem to be any problem with scheduling that final appointment for the following week, the day directly after the show, and as long as things stayed as they were there would continue to not be any problems. It did mean they were waiting a week longer to meet their little girl than they’d been planning on, but as long as she’d be born healthy when they did meet her, was it that big of a deal?

According to almost all of their friends, who had been eager to hear the good news of her birth soon, it was a very big deal and they should have thought it through better. The lone voice defending their decision was Kaito, and he was only on their side because he felt that they’d “know better than anyone what’s best for mini Kaede”, even though the decision hadn’t been in her best interest, but rather her mother’s. That was a fact they didn’t need to tell him, not when he was fighting the fight and wasting the energy on their behalf, and so the reason for why they pushed everything out another week would remain something just between the two of them.

But if the previous weeks had felt long, that following one was the length of a year and even then it felt longer than that, and the only person to blame for making it happen as it did was Kaede herself. Her only solace was that she was now waiting for a solid date that was not going to change again on her, it was the end of the road, and all that was standing between her and it was a week of feeling like she was the largest thing in the house, a week of being exhausted and unable to get comfortable for more than a few seconds, and one single show that she never should have agreed to be at.

 _thirty-three_.

Hope’s Peak Academy had always been known for having the best of the best in terms of students, yet for some events they brought in outside guests to assist the students in their performances. That was how Kaede had gotten dragged into things before, and this time was no different; there were a couple piano prodigies that were going to play alongside her, but they needed a “star” performer to be the centerpiece of the show for when the students were needed to do other things. If it were at any other time, she would have been able to flawlessly fit in with the students, as in the past she’d been mistaken for one and had to explain who she was and why she was there, but this time there was not going to be any chance of that happening.

In fact, her physical condition came as a surprise to everyone who was there at the school to greet her, almost as if the person responsible for getting her to perform hadn’t said a word about the possibility of her still being pregnant when the time for the show came around. “I knew that Kyoko had brought this up with everyone here when we considered you for the position, but the way she talked about it, it seemed like you’d be back to your normal self by now.” Awkwardly rubbing at his shoulder as he talked to Kaede upon her arrival to the school, the headmaster was trying his best to not look at her for too long, but his eyes were constantly drawn to the most prominent part of her, something that he was trying his best not to make obvious. “You’re still going to be able to do this for us, aren’t you?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t going to, don’t worry.” With a laugh, she draped one of her arms over the top of her stomach, which she knew seemed even bigger than it actually was because of the tight dress she was wearing. “I just have to sit at the piano and keep playing, that’s something I can definitely do right now. You can count on me to make it through this whole show, no matter how long it is.”

“That’s good to hear, very reassuring. There will be a couple breaks where you can move around as needed, but for the most part sitting and playing is all we’ll be asking of you.” He smiled at her and she returned the favor, and for a moment everything seemed like it was just a normal interaction between them, until she winced at something he didn’t know about. “Are you okay? Do we need to call someone for you?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s nothing to worry about,” she replied, having gotten rather used to the pain over the past few weeks but getting more annoyed at how it hadn’t resulted in anything yet. “If something were to happen, which it won’t, my husband will be here so he’ll be able to jump to my rescue. But seriously, nothing’s going to happen because this baby here’s super stubborn and she refuses to leave on her own terms.”

The headmaster blinked a couple times, unsure of how to react to that statement. “That sounds like you’ve got a plan in case things go wrong, that’s good, I suppose,” he said after thinking about what else there would be to say. “Now let’s go get you off your feet and onto the piano bench, I’m sure you’re ready to get playing.”

“I wouldn’t say I’m ready to play, but I could definitely use sitting down about now.” The best thing about being at the school for a performance was that she got to practice for a while before anything started, which included any students being around where she was, so for the first part of her time there she was playing the song that she’d composed, telling anyone who happened to hear it that it was a lullaby for her daughter and that she needed to get better at it. Thanks to how the speaker system worked at the school, the music was audible out in the waiting area for getting into the auditorium, and that was where Shuichi was sitting until he could get inside to keep watch over her. Upon hearing the lullaby he immediately felt like he needed to be in a state of concern, but the playing was so intentional and so well-done that there was no chance of it being a distress call, but rather her wanting to show off what she’d created for the child within her.

“It’s only one more day before we meet her,” he mumbled to himself, his hands fidgeting as he continued listening to the lullaby there in the crowded waiting area. “Let’s make sure that we keep it that way, exactly as planned.”

“You aren’t toting a child around with you,” Kyoko’s voice said as she came up behind Shuichi, him looking up at her without a hint of surprise that she’d shown up at random. “I assumed that you wouldn’t be entrusting anyone with the care of the little one so soon, but perhaps I was mistaken.”

He could tell by how she was talking that she was not being serious about being mistaken, but he was ready to drop the information that she was wrong by default into her lap. “I’m not carrying her with me, no, but that’s because her mother still is.”

“When she accepted doing this for the school, she told me that there was no way she’d still be pregnant and I suppose that I took her word as fact.” Bringing her gloved hands to her face, Kyoko didn’t seem too bothered that things weren’t as she’d expected them to be, but her next statement echoed something that Shuichi had not been able to stop thinking about over the past few days: “My one fear now is that something goes wrong mid-performance and she’s jeopardizing herself as well as our show in the process.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t be worried about your show if something happened, but that’s a strong possibility at this point, no matter what she says.” There was so much of a chance of something happening that Shuichi knew that the two of them could go back and forth about all the minor possibilities, but he didn’t want to dwell on them longer than he already had, and he was sure Kyoko didn’t need to start considering bad ending as well. “Let’s just be positive, she’s been fine this far and it seems pretty certain that nothing’s going to happen until we force it tomorrow, so why should we think about the chance that if something does happen, it’s something going wrong?”

“Looking at the bright side of things, what a good idea. You keep that in your mind, I’m going to go prepare everyone in case of emergency. The last thing this school needs is your wife causing a scene on the stage during the presentation.” There was a dismissive tone to Kyoko’s voice as she dropped her hands and walked away, disappearing through a door that led into the auditorium that he hadn’t seen anyone else enter yet. He hoped that she wasn’t upset with him, or even with Kaede, for what was going on, but when it came to Kyoko, no one really knew how she felt about things, unless it was the headmaster of the school, then he had an idea or two about it. Talking with the headmaster was something else that Shuichi wanted no part of that day, just in case he was as upset about Kaede’s current state as Kyoko seemed to be, but overall he was a lot more pleasant to interact with and didn’t make things seem so important all the time, so there was a chance it would go better.

It was still not a chance he was interested in taking, though, and so Shuichi stayed to himself there in the waiting area until the main doors inside opened and students, staff, and guests alike began to move into the auditorium. Since he was there for Kaede, and only Kaede, it was easy for him to sacrifice being able to see the stage in the room just to be closer to her, and once he’d found somewhere to sit where he could watch her carefully he settled in, already looking for the event to be over.

Little did he know that he’d be there all day, or at least until it was nearly sundown, with next to no breaks in the action and very few opportunities to get up and stretch his legs (which was a lot different than the “three shows” format he’d been told this would be running with). If he was tired of sitting there waiting to hear the announcement that the event was over, he couldn’t begin to imagine how Kaede felt about having to play almost the entire time, but there was not going to be a chance to ask her until everything was said and done. The biggest thing he wanted to bring up was why the format of the show had changed, and why it had happened when it would not benefit her at all, but he wasn’t sure if the chance for that would present itself.

When the event was considered finished, he tried to get down to where she had been playing as fast as he could, but the amount of people flocking to congratulate her on her performance and her ability to stay focused despite everything else was too much to push past initially. He could see familiar faces in the crowd around her, specifically Kyoko and the headmaster’s, but there were others that he knew from various encounters either there at the school or out around town, including a few he knew from cases he’d worked. However, he couldn’t see how Kaede was handling all their attention, nor could he make out her voice over the roar of the crowd that surrounded her. All he could hope was that they were respecting her space and not making her feel even more uncomfortable than he was sure she already was feeling.

As the crowd started to break apart, he saw that someone had stepped in to make sure that Kaede was able to keep space around herself even with there being so many people present, and he felt himself sigh in relief when he saw that it was Kyoko, of all people, who’d taken on that task. He was finally able to get down to the part of the floor where the pianists had been playing, and when one of the people he knew there saw him and waved him over, he took that as an invitation to weave through everyone still there just to get to his wife’s side. “So, that was a lot bigger of a show than I was expecting,” he said, trying not to sound annoyed with what he’d had to sit through. “If I’d know it was going to be that long, I’d have put my foot down about Kaede being here today.”

“Her being here and flexible saved the day, no one can be upset when she’s playing piano,” Kyoko replied, finally stepping away from Kaede now that a human shield wasn’t as necessary. “I’m certain there would have been unrest if it had just been students performing to fill in the gaps, am I correct in saying that, Makoto?”

“Er, yeah, that’s right.” Trying his best to look like he hadn’t been called into a conversation he wasn’t listening to, the headmaster of the school looked at Kyoko for a moment before he turned to Shuichi instead, giving an apologetic smile. “Sorry that you both had to spend all day here, but it was that or hear complaints from parents about how they didn’t care for the ‘amateur’ music. Giving them a single experienced pianist to listen to makes things easier when we had cancellations like we did.”

“Besides, it wasn’t like this was any different than what I’d be doing at home.” Shifting how she was standing to try and be as comfortable as she could get after the limited breaks she’d been able to have while playing, how Kaede sounded and how she looked were two different stories entirely. She was trying to act like everything was fine, that she hadn’t been bothered by what she’d unexpectedly been put through playing the show she’d agreed to, but the way she was almost grimacing as she stood, her hands behind her back trying to support herself without needing to lean, she was clearly not doing as well as she wanted to seem. “This was a great way to spend this last day before everything changes, so thanks for inviting me!”

Whereas Shuichi knew that she was being fake about things without even needing to look her in the eyes and see the pain in them, the others weren’t as experienced in calling out her deceit. “That sounds almost genuine, but not quite,” Kyoko murmured, glancing at her for a moment before shaking her head. “I’m going to tell myself it’s because of everything else going on, surely you wouldn’t have stayed committed to this show if you didn’t truly want to be here.”

“Don’t be so judgmental, of course she’s going to sound tired and like she wants to leave, I think every single one of us wants to get home after all that’s happened today!” Ribbing her with an elbow as he laughed, Makoto saw that Kyoko remained serious and that his jokes weren’t going to work on her, so he straightened up and coughed to clear his throat. “I mean, it would be best for her to get on her way, if she’s got plans for tomorrow, right? We shouldn’t hold them up much longer.”

“There you go, maintain that professional appearance around people we know on professional terms,” she told him, before holding out a gloved hand to shake with Shuichi, having noticed that Kaede’s were still being used to support her back. “I’ll see you around in the field after you make your return. Don’t stay gone too long, the crime rate will skyrocket if word gets out that one of the best detectives is out for a while.”

He was hesitant to shake her hand but chose to do it simply to remain polite, even if he wanted nothing more than to get himself and Kaede out of there right then. “Then let’s do our best to not let the word get out, I’d hate for everyone to have to work more in my absence.” There was very little chance that there’d be any noticeable uptick in the kinds of crimes he worked to solve in the week or so he’d be taking away from work, but the fact that Kyoko brought it up made him concerned that it was possible.

“Before you two leave, there is something we have to give you,” Makoto said, trying to split his attention between the pair while not trying to hold then up too much longer. “It’s not much, all things considered, but it’s only right to reward our performer with something that she wouldn’t get if she were sitting at home as she could have been.” The amount of money he was talking about _was_ nice, and it was something they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, but debating whether or not it was enough to make up for having to make a scheduled birth a week later than it needed to be was the conversation of the ride home.

By the time they were pulling up outside their house, they’d come to the conclusion that the money made waiting worth it, but only because it meant that they’d have money to spend in the coming days when everything in their lives had a new focus. The next time they were leaving the house, it would be because it was time to get the process of meeting their baby started, and that was a promise.

_thirty-four._

Even though they knew it was their last night to get a good amount of sleep for a long time, neither of them could fall asleep without a lot of struggle. That had been a constant for Kaede over the past months, but the restlessness usually never hit Shuichi as hard as it did that night, and so they lay awake in their dark bedroom together, not wanting to talk and actively sabotage trying to get some rest. When morning came, they maybe had three hours of sleep between them, but there was no chance to try and fix that problem when there was so much that needed to be done before they left for the day.

They already had everything they needed packed up, prepared weeks in advance just in case something happened suddenly and without warning, but the final preparations were all things that needed to be done day-of. There were last-minute checks of the room to make sure there weren’t any essentials they’d be needing whenever they came home next (there weren’t, that they knew of), there was making sure that the materials to update the chalkboard were handy for upon that first arrival home with baby, and there was one last picture to take with what was currently written on the board—a forty-one week message that, in big print, included the fact that it was the last time one of those pictures would happen like that.

To mark the occasion, Kaede put on the shirt she’d been saving for whenever she got to take that final picture and proudly posed in it, making sure that the fake eviction notice printed over her stomach was visible when the picture was taken. She was definitely ready to get things over with, but she could still put on a smile as she struck that pose, her head tilted to the side as she grinned to show that she could still at least pretend to be happy. “I wonder if anyone’s going to think I made myself look like this while actually in labor,” she said as she watched Shuichi post the picture without caption, as was tradition. “I mean, I’d probably try to look my best if I was, but I think this just wouldn’t be possible.”

“Yeah, you can tell that you’re not in too much pain right now, people will know that it’s not a dire situation.” Tucking his phone into his pocket, he looked his wife over from head to toe, taking note of the messy way she’d tied her hair up, the tired smile still on her lips, the way her arms were crossed in front of her and resting on her stomach, how her feet were shoved into shoes far too small for them. The next time they’d be in their house together, things would be so different that he might not have the chance to admire her like that again, and so he spent quite a bit of time taking in everything he could before coming back to reality, seeing her staring at him with confusion in her eyes. “Sorry, got wrapped up in thinking about how lovely you look, even now. Let’s get going, I’d rather not be late to this and have them try to reschedule.”

“Please let’s not consider rescheduling, waiting this long feels like it was a mistake already.” Her every step was wobbly, her whole body swaying as she walked, yet she refused to have him support her as they left the house. The ride over to the birthing center that they’d been referred to was a short one, but it was filled with chatter about what was going to happen, about how they hoped things would go, about how there was a chance that by the end of the day they’d have their daughter in their lives. That was the dream, to be able to meet her as soon as they could, but there was not going to be any rushing what was meant to happen, and already they’d seen that the baby wanted to take her time being born.

There were next to no people in the waiting area when they arrived, just a couple of half-awake men sitting in chairs against the wall with balloons and gifts at their feet. “They must be here to visit someone,” Shuichi commented, to which Kaede nodded in agreement, but him pointing that out allowed them both to realize that in the near future, it would be their friends sitting there in those same positions, waiting to come see them. The mere idea of someone such as Kaito, or even Tenko, sitting there waiting sent shivers down his spine, not just because he failed to see how they’d be able to keep quiet but because if they were in there, that would mean they were even closer to their end goal. “Let’s get through the check-in process, maybe they’ll be able to get us back quickly.”

They were there at their scheduled time, if not a couple minutes early, and yet after verifying the information they were asked to sit down and wait for just a little bit. That “little bit” turned into almost half an hour, time during which the nerves of what they were there to do started getting to Kaede. “What if something goes wrong and none of this works?” she asked, her voice shaking with her self-inflicted fear. “They’ll have to cut me open to get her out then, won’t they?”

“Yes, but don’t think about that possibility because it’s not going to happen. Everything will work exactly as we’ve planned for it.” He offered her a hand for comfort and she took it carefully, giving it a tight squeeze once she had it in hers. “If you start worrying, it’ll make things worse than they need to be. Keep calm, I’m here for you and everything will be fine, I promise you that.”

“You can’t actually promise it, but I understand. As long as you’re by my side, I’ll be able to get through anything, even a surprise change of plans.” She was almost to the point of leaning up against him when they were called back, the nurse there to retrieve them super friendly and energetic, in contrast to their tired nerves. The room they were given was a lot larger than they’d thought it would be, but most of the space was empty and would be used for staging any medical personnel that needed to be on hand. Within minutes of them getting settled in, the team of doctors in charge for the time being came in, all introducing themselves to the couple and explaining how things were supposed to go.

The big takeaway was that there was no guarantee of how fast anything would happen, but that they would be immediately starting the medication that should, in theory, force labor to start so that they could get anywhere. That was enough to put even more fear into Kaede’s mind, but she had to remind herself that she had Shuichi right there with her and that he would stay with her every step of the way, no matter what. There was one other thing that had been mentioned that she had heard but only half-paid attention to, while he’d caught on to every word and was interested in learning more about, but he didn’t want to push into their medical duties to get the answers he wanted.

As it turned out, the question he wanted to ask got answered at about the same time the nurse was sticking Kaede’s arm with needles to get her set up for the delivery of the medication. They were given the warning then that, because of the nature of the medicine, there was a chance that they could have to medicate her for pain multiple times, or never have a chance to medicate at all, depending on how fast and long labor was once it started. “That means that we could be at this a while, or no time at all,” he remarked, to which the nurse nodded. “Which means that letting anyone know where we are won’t be useful until we’re definitely in the final stretch, got it.”

“Please don’t tell them where we are until you _have_ to,” Kaede said, her eyes glued to his face to keep herself from having to look at the machine she was now hooked up to via needles and tubes. “I’d rather them not see me like this, I don’t think I’d be able to handle it.”

“It wasn’t my plan to have them come in until after she’s born, don’t worry.” He gave her a reassuring smile and she returned the gesture, even though hers was a lot less convincing than his. For how ready she’d seemed in recent weeks, it was beyond clear that Kaede was more nervous about what she was going to have to do than she’d ever let on, and he didn’t know how much there would be that he could do to comfort her, beyond sit there with her and offer his hand when she needed it.

For the first few hours, nothing seemed to happen. After getting the medication drip administered and manually going in and breaking her water in an attempt to jumpstart things, the medical staff came in to check on any progress every so often, but there was never anything notable to comment on, to the point that it seemed like she hadn’t been medicated at all. She was just sitting in the bed, playing on her phone as if she was at home laying in her own bed; the only differences really were that she was in a hospital gown rather than any of her own clothes, and that she couldn’t have anything to eat other than ice chips, which she didn’t seem to want. “By the time anything happens, I think everyone in here is going to have seen my whole downstairs,” she laughed after one of the doctors left the room. “Which I mean, I guess I should have expected that, but there’s so many of them doing all these checks that it’s kind of weird. Only a little weird, but still weird.”

“I’m glad you haven’t let this drag you down, I’d hate it if you weren’t still so upbeat right now.” He knew that she was not doing as well as she was pretending to be, but if there was one thing Shuichi admired about her it was her ability to keep that brave face on even in a complicated situation. “I’m sure they’re going to come up with some way to make this happen faster, they can’t expect you to sit here all day like this.”

“I think you’re right, but I don’t know what else there is that they can do, aside from cut me open and we already talked about that.” Pulling her legs together as she resumed lounging in the bed as best as she could, Kaede was half-laying on her side, facing Shuichi with a smile. “I’m sure that things will start happening soon, unless they really didn’t medicate me like they thought they did, and then…well, we’ll see, right?”

Her optimism was contagious, and he found himself nodding in acceptance of what she’d just said. “That’s right, we just have to keep thinking that something will happen soon. Can’t let ourselves start doubting anything.”

“Yeah, and besides, it’s not like they’re gonna just let me lay around without anything happening. They’ve got to get things taken care of before something can go wrong.” She paused, bringing her non-needled arm to resting against her stomach. “I know that nothing is going to go wrong, duh, but I’m still worrying that maybe it could if nothing starts here soon. It can’t be good for a baby to do this to herself, can it?”

“I don’t know how to answer that, sorry Kaede.” Thinking about that possibility hadn’t been something that Shuichi had wanted to do, and now that it had been brought up he was going to try his best to continue ignoring it. Everything so far had been rather positive, there was no way that things were going to fall apart at the very end of it all, especially not when they were in the very place they needed to be in order to make things right. He sat back in his chair and watched her without another word, not wanting to keep talking and bringing more fears to light.

The next time a doctor came into the room to perform a check, another dosage of the medication was brought in as well and administered after a warning that if it didn’t take effect within a few hours then there was a strong chance that a natural birth wouldn’t be possible. As that was something that they had zero control over, it became a game of hoping that this second try would be enough to kickstart what they so desperately wanted to have happen that day. But an hour later, the only contractions she was feeling were weak and far apart, and very little in the way of progress had been made since they’d arrived earlier in the day—but there _had_ been progress. It wasn’t enough to consider needing to take an alternate route a bad plan, but it was something that showed that they were slowly moving in the right direction.

“Since it’s getting late, maybe now you can tell everyone what’s going on?” she suggested once it was just the two of them in the room again, this time her legs crossed as she adjusted how she was laying in the bed. “And tell them to bring me something to eat if they’re coming, I’m so hungry it’s not even funny.”

“Cute idea, but you know that it’s ice or nothing for you until she’s born.” Grabbing his phone out of his pocket, Shuichi heard Kaede grumbling under her breath about that wasn’t fair but he knew he could either fight with her on that, or he could do what she’d told him to do. Calling someone to tell them what was happening right then wasn’t something he necessarily thought was needed, not when so little had actually happened, but he was not going to deny her everything she wanted in life. “I’ll step out of the room to call, I know the doctor was just in here but I’d prefer there not be a visit while I’m talking to someone.”

“That makes sense, tell them all I’m excited to see them when they can come in, and seriously tell them to bring me food too, I’ll eat it anyway.” He had to lightly scold her a second time for her insistence before he left the room, walking down the hall back to the waiting area to make two calls with the same message, and send out that message a third time to someone he wasn’t going to call at dinnertime.

The text version of the message went first, then he called his uncle to tell him what was going on (and got a response of needing to tell him when the child was born so he could come to visit, something that he was more than willing to do), and finally came the call that was more daunting than anything. It was either going to go very well, or go horribly, and given that it was Kaito he was calling, either possibility was just as likely. “If you’re calling me, there’s either something good or something bad happening and I hope it’s the first one,” Kaito said immediately upon answering the phone, making Shuichi wonder how he was going to take what he had to tell him. “You’ve been there, like, all day so it better be a great update you’ve got for me.”

“Unfortunately it’s not much of an update, nothing’s happened yet and we’re still waiting for what they’re going to do. I just wanted to let you know that so that you could…” Shuichi tried to build some kind of break into what he was doing, but as he trailed off he heard Kaito start throwing around possible endings to the sentence, all of which were bad ideas that he needed to put a stop to immediately. “So that you could make plans for coming to visit tomorrow, since this won’t be handled before visitors aren’t allowed in, I’m sure.”

“You think visiting hours are going to stop Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, from visiting you guys and seeing mini Kaede as soon as I can? You’re mistaken, Shuichi, and I’m a bit disappointed in you for it.” He was laughing on his end of the phone, while there in the waiting room Shuichi’s face had fallen at the sound of how insistent he seemed to be there when he wanted to be, not when he was wanted. “I’ll go let Maki Roll know what’s happening and we’ll be over as soon as possible. Sleeping’s allowed for visitors, isn’t it? Do you think they’ll mind us crashing there overnight so we can be first?”

“Kaito, seriously, there’s no reason to do that. You and Maki sleep in your bed tonight, we’ll be here in the morning for you to come visit.” As he’d only wanted to give the update, not invite unwanted visitors to come hang around, Shuichi hated that this was how Kaito had taken things, but he wasn’t too surprised that it had happened. “I’ll let you know first if anything happens overnight, but you’re still not allowed here until morning.”

He could hear Kaito groaning at being turned down, but thankfully he got the message and stopped talking like he was going to show up without being wanted there. Once they said their goodbyes and the call ended, he headed back to Kaede’s room to see how she was doing, but stopped most of the way down the hall when he’d received a reply to the message he’d sent out, Tenko saying that she appreciated the update and would be by to see them as soon as she could be. Doing exactly what he’d just done with Kaito, he told her to stay home until further updates were given, but as it was a text-based exchange he had a sinking feeling that his seriousness wasn’t going to be taken as well.

“So, uh, Tenko might be here soon,” he opened with as he went back into the room, Kaede watching him with her tired but observant eyes when he returned. “Not that I told her she should be here, but she’s doing her own thing and I doubt me, being a male and all, could do anything to talk her out of her decision.”

“I hope she knows it’s going to be a long night,” Kaede replied, looking at the clock on the wall to remember how long of a day it had already been for her, and how there seemed to be little hope for anything starting to happen soon. “I’m already dreading going through tonight if it’s going to be like this, I’m so bored of being here but there’s not much I can do. The doctors are going to make me go take a walk here in a bit to see if that helps, and if it doesn’t…that’s when they’re going to have to take action.”

He saw her looking at the clock and thought about how much longer the day must have felt to her based on what her current situation was. “Let’s hope that going on a walk helps then, I know that you want this to be as natural as possible and being forced into a decision to speed things along doesn’t seem fair to you.” As he was taking his seat once more, he watched her eyes shift towards him for a second, then over to the machine that she was attached to. “Not like having to be here like this is exactly natural either, I suppose.”

“I’d rather have to go through things like this than having to be cut open,” she reminded him, “even if this is super boring so far. Where’s the excitement? Where’s the feeling that things are actually happening?”

“You’ll find it soon enough, I know it.” Something told him that her asking those questions was just a disaster waiting to happen, but Shuichi didn’t want to put a damper on her still-high spirits. If Kaede was able to keep being positive even after the day she’d had, there was no reason to make her stop.

_thirty-five._

It was a snowball effect that once it got started, there was no stopping it, and the first sign of that being the case came not long after they got back from the doctor-suggested walk around the building. There wasn’t much that changed about how she felt, but Kaede did notice that the next time she had a contraction, it was a fair bit stronger than the previous ones she’d had, and the subsequent one didn’t take as long to happen. But it wasn’t too much to handle and so she let them happen, telling the doctor about it when she was visited next but not expecting it to be too notable.

She was told that, while more progress had been made, she wasn’t anywhere close to being in actual labor and that she needed to just keep monitoring things and let someone know the moment anything changed dramatically. “I doubt it’s going to change that much before I get checked on again,” she said, looking to Shuichi for assurance with her statement, but all he could give her was a shrug, as he wasn’t sure if he agreed with her or not. She puffed out her cheeks and rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue against his stance.

As it turned out, she was right not to argue with him, because it seemed that every contraction that hit over the course of the next hour was coming on harder and less spaced out, yet when another doctor came in to monitor very little progress in terms of dilation had been made; this was frustrating to her, especially when she asked if she could possibly get medicated to help with the pain of the intensifying contractions and she was told that she wasn’t close enough to labor to justify it. It wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but she nodded and accepted it because the doctor would be the one to trust in that situation.

When things escalated further in such a short period of time, to the point that she was muffling her screams with her pillow every time she’d go through another contraction, it seemed like perhaps the medical staff had misjudged what was going on. In fact, the thought to ask them to explain why they’d allowed this to happen did cross Shuichi’s mind as he was trying his best to keep Kaede calm and not screaming too much more, but he didn’t act on it because he understood that the nature of this sort of thing was unpredictable. There was always the chance that she was being overdramatic to try and get attention quicker, and that once a doctor came in she’d be fine, but he had faith that Kaede wouldn’t do something like that without giving him warning first.

The next visit came off-schedule, due to how much she was screaming, and with it having gotten late into the evening the doctor that came in was not one that had visited before. A proper introduction was not possible, given that she walked into the room as Kaede had the pillow held tightly over her face, Shuichi stroking her back to try and help her through things. The doctor looked concerned about the scene she’d entered, but once the contraction had passed and she could get a proper examination going, the concern faded and was replaced with a determined expression. What she told them took them both by surprise, but that surprise was laced in terror because of what it meant was coming next.

It seemed that, in the time between exams, she had gone from being on the edge of labor to fully in the middle of it, and that it was just about time to start the most stressful and rewarding part of the whole ordeal. “Uh, I was told I couldn’t be given anything for the pain earlier because I wasn’t close enough to any of this, and now you’re telling me I’m going to…go through this…without anything?” Her last words choppy as she realized what answer she knew she was going to be given, Kaede’s eyes had gone as wide as they’d ever been in fear of going through what was to come while being able to feel everything. “Please, tell me that there’s something you can do!”

“It’s strange that the earlier doctors refused you any sort of medication, rapid intensification of labor like this should always be thought of as a possibility,” the doctor replied, moving around to where the mostly-empty bag from the earlier medicine deliver hung. “We’ll get something into your system as soon as possible, give it a couple minutes to take effect, and then it’ll be time to start pushing. I’m going to round up the team, I’ll be right back.”

“She’s definitely nicer than the doctors from earlier,” Shuichi commented as she left the room, the closing door feeling like a metaphor for how the child-less chapter of their lives was closing on them fast. “And look, you’ll be able to have something to help you through this. It might be a bit late, but it’s better than nothing.”

She nodded, glancing over at the bag the doctor had been looking at before she’d left. “I guess it is better than nothing, but I’ve already had to feel a lot more than I was hoping I would, so what’s the point, you know?”

“Not being in so much pain that you end up breaking your fingers, perhaps?” The idea of her squeezing his hand hard enough to severely injure one or both of them had crossed his mind when he’d seen the death grip she’d put the pillow into, and he was thankful that maybe this chance of medication would keep injuries to a minimum. “Remember that they warned you that this would hurt a lot, it’d be best to make it hurt as little as possible however they can.”

“Yeah, but I…I don’t know, I only researched the one kind of pain medication and whatever they’re giving me is not it. I’m not sure I should go through with it.” It was the exhaustion speaking, he hoped, because what she was saying was not something he expected to hear come out of Kaede’s mouth in that situation. “If anything goes wrong, you’ll help me blame the doctors from earlier for it, right?”

“Don’t think like that, but yes, I will.” Shuichi felt like his job right then was to just go along with whatever Kaede was saying, even if he disagreed with her, and even still that didn’t feel like he was doing enough. She was suffering, hurting even if she wasn’t actively shrieking in pain, and he was responsible for putting her through that, and there was so much he wished he could do for her in that moment but none of it was possible. If he could take her pain for even a minute, he gladly would have, just to let her think clearly and be rational again about what was happening.

It was going to be a while until that rational thinking was possible again for her, especially when the birthing staff entered the room and things began feeling even more imminent. After she was properly medicated and it was given a little bit of time to start working (it wasn’t much relief, but the first contraction she had after it began taking effect was a lot less intense than the ones before), everyone took their positions and it became closer to the time to bring that little girl into the world. Except, as it became clear after a while of pushing through the contractions without much progress, it wasn’t going to be as quick of a process as they’d thought based on the rapid intensification of everything.

Thirty minutes of pushing led to a short break, so that the staff could relax a moment and the parents could gear up for the second round. “You’re doing fine, there’s only so much you can do and the rest is up to her,” Shuichi whispered into Kaede’s ear, trying to be as positive as possible even though things were still dragging on. He could see how tired she was, her eyes half-lidded and her face reddened from the exertion of what she’d been through, sweat beading all around her hairline and dripping down her face; despite that, he still gently kissed her cheek a couple of times to remind her that he loved her, and that he was there supporting her every moment.

She didn’t verbally respond with anything more than a soft groan, but the way she put pressure on his hand as she felt his lips brushing her cheek was enough of a response for him to know that she appreciated his gestures of love. Her energy level was clearly as low as it was going to get, yet when the medical team reconvened she seemed to have a second wind hit her, and she was right back to giving it all she had to try and get through things. With every sustained push the staff noted how it was getting closer and closer, and that it shouldn’t be too much longer until they were done there.

That meant that every push became more stressful, because it was bringing them closer to seeing the life they’d created in the flesh for the first time. As much as he was trying to remain strong and supportive, this was the part where Shuichi was starting to get worried about all of the possible things that might be wrong, about how they might be greeted with a child that wasn’t complete or had something wrong with them, and how they’d have to immediately learn to cope with that. He didn’t want to be a worrier, but jumping to all possible conclusions was something he did naturally, and he knew that the only way to face those fears directly would be to do something that he’d never considered until right then, while his hand was being gripped for dear life. Waiting until the natural lull in the pushing, he went over what he’d thought about doing a couple times before deciding to go with it.

“If it’s okay with you, I think I want to watch this happen.” The words felt strange coming out of his mouth, and he could see them take a moment to register in Kaede’s mind, but she slowly let go of his hand so that he could move closer to where the medical team was organized, not wanting to get in the way but also not wanting to be left unable to see anything. What he was greeted with was not something he’d ever imagined he’d see with his own eyes, but it was a sight he knew he’d never forget as long as he lived. He so badly wanted to close his eyes and ignore that it was happening, but he’d just left his position of keeping Kaede calm to get this vantage point, he couldn’t actually look away from the sight of what was definitely the top of a head trying to poke its way into the world.

Being on that side of things made what followed feel more like a dream than like it actually happened. Even without being there to offer his hand for her to use, Shuichi still could feel Kaede’s fingers wrapped around his and his hand ached as she resumed pushing, to the point that he felt himself beginning to tear up from the pain. Or perhaps the tears were collecting in his lashes because of what he was watching, the emotions of the situation beginning to hit him hard and all at once.

The moment of the birth itself felt like it dragged on, everything in the room going eerily still aside from the quick-moving hands grabbing and pulling out the dirty, fluid-covered baby. Somewhat normal movement resumed as a piercing, unfamiliar cry rang out through the room, and it was then that it properly sank in that what he’d just seen was his own child being born. As much as he wanted to say something about what had happened, there were no words to be spoken, no voice to be found at the moment, not when he was so overcome with emotions that he was actively crying. If someone had been there to witness his reaction to everything, they would have seen him in that fragile state, crying as he was going through the motions of everything the medical team wanted him to do for them.

Meanwhile, the reality of what had happened hadn’t quite hit Kaede, and while she knew that she wasn’t being expected to do anything for the moment, she wasn’t fully sure what was going on around her. Her body still ached, and she was continuing to feel the too-familiar sensation of contractions even if they weren’t anywhere close to what she’d already been going through, but she wasn’t sure why almost everyone had turned away from her—she was so tired that she honestly thought the cry she’d heard had come from Shuichi, not considering it could have been anything else.

That sense of being lost disappeared when one of the doctors came to her side and set a small, quiet baby across her chest, and for the first time she was able to look at the perfect little face of the daughter she already loved so much. “You did it, you really did,” Shuichi told her with a wavering voice as he sat back down next to her, his legs trembling underneath him. “Look at her, she’s here and she’s ours.”

“I…did do it,” she repeated, choking up as she spoke. She was running on no energy, only awake because of the adrenaline the whole situation had put into her, and as she stared into that baby’s precious face she started crying, unable to explain how she felt in that moment. The love of a mother was running strong through her veins as she had her baby there with her, her heart now existing outside of her body. This was what they’d been waiting all those months for, and now that the moment was there she didn’t know what to do.

Even with the crying and the obvious exhaustion, the picture that Shuichi took of that first mother-daughter moment was the most beautiful picture he’d ever have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> depending on things, next week's final chapter might be delayed until super late or even the following day, sorry in advance.  
> also...we're almost done??


	8. Chapter 8

_thirty-six_.

The official record for the event said that she was born at just before midnight that night, which felt unreal given how long they’d been there that day without anything happening. She wasn’t any heavier than the average newborn, even though she’d spent an extra week past her due date inside her mother, but she was slightly longer, which seemed surprising to both parents until it was pointed out that her size then wouldn’t translate to her size once she was older, and that they didn’t need to worry about their daughter possibly being taller than them until she was much older.

She had light eyes that would most likely darken a bit but stay relatively close to her father’s deep gray, and her head was already covered in dark hair that she definitely had inherited from her father. Her ten fingers and ten toes were all in order, attached to her legs and arms that all seemed to work to perfection, and there was nothing visibly amiss with her anywhere on her little body. The most surprising thing about her was her round, chunky cheeks that tried eclipsing her tiny mouth, which she’d had in what looked like a miniature replica of the pout Kaede would wear when she didn’t get her way. So far, on those initial impressions, her mouth seemed to be the only thing that was reminiscent of her mother, as everything else was very much something that Shuichi had given her.

It didn’t matter, though, not when she’d have so much time to grow and change and show them how much like them both she was every moment of every day. Those first moments were precious and meant to be treasured forever, but once the adrenaline and emotions began wearing off, it became time to slip back into reality for a little while and take care of everything that was necessary right then. For Shuichi, that ended up meaning having to sit there as a final round of contractions wracked Kaede’s body, delivering the last remnants of what had been sustaining their daughter in the womb for all those months; once that passed they were able to begin moving on into new, uncharted territory.

With it being so late at night, easily into the one o’clock hour at that point, he knew that there was a chance that everyone who was waiting for updates would be asleep already, but he also knew that not sending them out right away could be bad. “I’m going to tell everyone she’s here, but that there’s no visitors until morning,” he said quietly, Kaede half-awake to hear what he was telling her. “I don’t think they’ll need a picture, they can wait to see her for themselves since we know they’ll be here early.”

She yawned in return, giving a gentle nod to let him know that she agreed with what he said, and to be respectful he stepped out of the room to let her get some rest while he took care of sending the message out. There was still someone who’d be able to let him back into the room when he was finished, so he chose to go all the way out to the waiting area as to not disrupt anyone else in a room on that stretch of hall—and when he got through the last door out into the room full of chairs, he saw something he’d inwardly hoped he wouldn’t.

Sitting in one of the chairs against the wall, with a large bag at her feet and a balloon tied to its handles that was floating above her head, Tenko had her eyes closed and her head tilted forward, almost as if she’d fallen asleep while waiting there. As much as he appreciated knowing that she was eager to meet the baby, he didn’t know what to do about her; calling anyone and trying to leave them a message would wake her up and then he’d be faced with having to deny her access to the room until morning, but he’d already gone through the effort of being out of the room to make the calls in the first place. He couldn’t turn back and potentially disrupt Kaede, who deserved to be allowed to sleep more than anyone, but waking Tenko could be even more of a disruption.

“Don’t think that I fell asleep waiting, I’m too close to bursting with excitement to do that,” she said, making him jump at the sound of her voice, and he apologized for just standing there, staring at her as he’d tried to decide what to do. “Himiko told me that it would be a bad idea to come by, but look who was the smart one now, huh? I’m gonna get to see her first and there’s no one that can stop me!” Her head had perked up and even at a distance Shuichi could see that Tenko’s eyes were shining in the dimly-lit room. “I even brought you guys a gift, because that felt like the proper thing to do.”

“We appreciate the gesture, but, uh…” It was standing there, trying to think of what he was going to say that he realized how tired he still was, every bit of energy he’d had to get through the day having drained away without him noticing. “It’s rather late, and there’s not really any visitors allowed after a certain time, so you’ll have to…you know, wait until morning with everyone else to go back and see her.”

Tenko shifted her eyes down for a second, before looking back at Shuichi with determination prominent in her gaze. “I don’t think you understand me, I’ve been waiting out here since you told me what was going on, I _am_ going to be the first person outside of you two to meet the baby. You’re going to allow this, or I’m going to have to take action.”

“I didn’t say you wouldn’t be first, I said that you couldn’t see her right now! There’s a difference, I promise!” His heart was beginning to race knowing that when Tenko talked about taking action, she almost always meant something physical and potentially painful, which he didn’t want or need in his life at the moment. “Go home, get some sleep in your bed, and come back when it isn’t the middle of the night.”

When she began to kick the bag aside to stand up, he didn’t know what to do to get her to stop aside from beg her to think what she was doing through completely. “I’m not going home until I get to see that baby, so if you want me to leave so badly you’ll have to let me do that right now. Typical degenerate male, if it were Kaede I was talking to she’d get what I’m saying and let me do what I want peacefully.”

“But you’re not talking to Kaede, you’re talking to me, and she would say what I’m saying anyway so you just need to go home, please Tenko. It’s not worth getting worked up.” She’d stood up and was looking at him, the distance between them not much at all for her to cross if she chose to make things physical. He was out of ideas of what to do, she wasn’t going to hear what he was saying because it wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but just as he was considering turning towards the desk to get one of the night nurses to explain the policies to her she sat back down, huffing as she did.

“You’re right, I can’t go in there angry at you, I’ll just look bad. I’m not leaving though, you can’t pay me to get me to give up my spot as first in line!” Her insistence on that matter was not worth the effort of fighting, and Shuichi really didn’t feel like he had the energy to battle with her any longer, so he let her do as she pleased. He still needed to call some people to tell them what had happened, even if they wouldn’t hear it right away.

His uncle’s phone went straight to voicemail, which he expected, but when he called Kaito to tell him he got an answer, from the other person at the house. “What do you want from us at this hour?” Maki asked, her attitude giving the impression that she’d just been woken up by the call. “We’re trying to sleep like normal people. Whatever it is, it better be good.”  
“It’s good, don’t worry.” This was not a good conversation to be having with Maki, because he knew how she felt about children and if she was already upset about being forced to be awake because Kaito knew no volume setting aside from full blast, she was not going to be any happier about the call relating back to the baby. “I just wanted you guys to know that everything went well, and that—”

“You were going to tell Kaito this. At this time. Knowing that he would want to jump out of bed and see you all right away. You’re just as much of an idiot as he is, Shuichi.” She didn’t even let him finish what he was saying as she ended the call, leaving him without delivering the entirety of the news. While he could have tried calling back, he was sure Maki had silenced the phone to prevent that from happening, so he’d just have to wait until morning to settle things with them.

Until morning, or until about an hour later when he was finally mentally settling down in the makeshift bed in the room, the ambient sounds of being in a medical building finally not at the forefront of his mind. His phone, which he’d set down next to him for the night, lit up and began vibrating, and instinctively he answered the call that was coming through. “We’re trying to get in but they’re saying that visitors aren’t allowed until after sunrise, what’s the deal with that?” Hearing Kaito’s voice asking that question made him really regret not trying to clear things up with Maki, now that he’d have to deal with the two of them on top of everything else.

“Sorry about that, Maki hung up on me before I could explain. There’s no visiting right now, we’re trying to both get some sleep.” His voice was a whisper, if even that, to make sure that he wasn’t waking Kaede up after she’d also finally managed to fall asleep. “Tenko’s out there in the waiting area, the three of you can all wait together until morning. There’s not much else I can do, sorry.”

“Come on, man, that’s not what I wanted to hear. But if it can’t be helped, then I guess it can’t be helped. We’ll see you in the morning then.” The last thing he heard before he ended the call was Kaito beginning to explain the situation to Maki, starting with using his nickname for her, and Shuichi half-wished he could be out there to watch her reaction. But he was too tired to be bothered to go out and watch it, and he knew he’d hear about however she took it in the morning.

_thirty-seven._

It had been a good idea to try and sleep when they could, because there weren’t many chances for them to get to try, or at least there weren’t for Kaede, as she was the one who the doctors and nurses coming in always wanted to deal with. Every time she’d start falling into a deep sleep someone would come in to check on her, or to ask her questions, or to bring the baby in so that they could have some bonding time. She was more than happy to get to snuggle her child up to her chest and feel that immediate connection with someone she’d already loved so much before they’d properly met.

When Shuichi finally woke up after a restless sleep (the sounds of people coming in and out kept him from sleeping too well), he was greeted by the sight of mother and daughter in the bed, Kaede looking down at the baby with nothing but affection in her gaze. “Good morning to you both,” he said, stifling a yawn as he sat up, seeing her look up at him and smile. “Wasn’t aware she was going to be in here when I woke up, that’s a nice surprise.”

“She hasn’t been in here very long, they’re really trying to get me to get her to feed but…” Her voice went quiet as she returned to looking down at the baby wrapped up on top of her, her smile getting shaky. “It’s a lot of work and I don’t feel like I’m doing enough. They say it’s fine but what if it’s not? What if she’s starving because I can’t do enough?”

“H-hey now, don’t start crying!” He wasn’t sure if saying that was the right thing to do, but it was all he had until he was to his feet and at her side, stroking her head to try and calm her. “You’re doing exactly as much as you need to for her, you don’t need to worry about doing any less. You’re a great mother already, I mean…”

She sniffled, her eyes still glued on the baby’s angelic face. “I guess you’re right, Shuichi, but I’d be nowhere without you. This was all a team effort, I can’t take all the credit.”

As he was trying to come up with a response that would make her rethink that statement, there was a knock at the door, followed by a nurse asking if they were fine with visitors coming in. It didn’t take them as a surprise to have that question asked, but when they said that they were, the door opened and all three of the people Shuichi knew had been waiting came barreling in, Tenko and Kaito fighting to be at the lead while Maki trailed behind them, holding several bags in her hands. “Can you three please keep it down in here, she’s trying to sleep!” Kaede sounded as stern as she could while scolding them in a whisper-like voice, and the chatter that the two at the lead had been taking part in became silent.

For a moment, at any rate. “Sorry, we were just so excited to get in here that we forgot we needed to keep quiet,” Tenko said, setting her bag that she was still carrying down by the foot of the bed, the balloon immediately getting in the way of everyone’s sight. “I’ve been here since last night, you know. I’m beyond ready to get to hold her for myself!”

“Except I’m going to be the one holding her first, that’s what happens when your sidekick has a kid!” He was the only one to have entered the room with both hands empty, and yet Kaito hadn’t done anything to use his advantage over Tenko until she also had both hands free. Jumping towards the bed with his arms outstretched, he was swiftly punched away when he got too close, sending him back a few steps. “Hey, what gives? I said I’m gonna be holding her first, so back off and let me do it!”

“And I said that I’ve been here since last night, so I’ll be holding her first. Typical disgusting degenerate male, assuming that he gets priority for the stupidest reasons.” Shaking her fist after having made contact with his arm, Tenko turned her eyes back towards where Kaede and the baby were, but her attention was diverted when an open palm grazed her face, leaving her cheek stinging. “Excuse me, but did you just try to _hit_ me?”

Now it was Kaito shaking his hand, the side of his hand and his fingers tingling from the contact. “It was more of a smack than a hit, if we’re being correct, but hell yeah I did! You can’t bully your way into holding her first, the first person holding mini Kaede in here is me, and that’s that!”

Taking in a sharp breath, Kaede looked at the two as they were exchanging death glares and preparing to go further to blows, before glancing over to where Maki was keeping her distance from their drama. “Uh, Maki, I know how you feel about kids but…would you want to hold her first? If you don’t, that’s okay but the offer’s there.” Her words were drowned out partially by the arguing, but Maki clearly heard that they’d been said and she was staring at Kaede, mouth slightly agape at the possibility. “What do you say, yes or no?”

“If it gets them to shut up, I’ll look past the fact that she’s a baby to hold her.” That answer brought the pair to silence, them understanding that their childish spat had just cost them both the position they’d wanted. Maki seemed to be feeling awkward as she came towards the bed, before taking a seat on the makeshift bed Shuichi had slept on overnight as he moved to make room for her to be there. She seemed to be trying to steel herself for what was to come while he went over to Kaede and carefully, very carefully took the baby from on her chest to carry her over to Maki’s waiting arms. “Oh god, she’s tinier than I was expecting her to be, I’m going to break her…”

“No, you’ll be fine, you just have to make sure you support her head with one hand and her body with the other.” It felt weird for Shuichi to be giving such advice when he’d been given the crash course on how to hold a living baby just hours before, when he’d gotten to hold his daughter for the first time, but he could see the relief wash over Maki’s face when she heard his words. “Don’t worry too much about holding her, she’s not going to do much.”

“I wouldn’t expect her to, but it’s not like I’ve had much experience in this.” Her arms held out so that he could gently set the baby down in them, the moment Maki felt the blanket wrapped around the baby touch her arm her face contorted into a worried expression. “No, take her away, I can’t do this. I’m not meant to hold children, end of story.”

Despite her protests, Shuichi went through with setting the baby down completely in her arms, watching how Maki slowly was lightening up as she found herself looking at the little face sitting in front of her. “There, you’re holding her now, aren’t you?”

“I must say, I’m jealous of you for that, Maki Roll. I was certain I’d be the first holding mini Kaede but there you are, doing it instead.” Kaito was scratching at the back of his neck, looking at Maki with a grin on his face even though he wasn’t the happiest about what was going on. “You look like you’re having fun holding her, though!”

“If this looks fun, then I’d hate to know what real fun looks like.” Glaring up at him with her head still turned down, Maki was shooting him one of the most terrifying looks she could manage, while he was laughing about what she said. “It’s nothing big if I’m holding her, but I didn’t ask for this and I doubt I’ll ever ask for it in the future.”

“Just you wait, then, I’m sure you’ll be her favorite person to spend time with aside from me or Shuichi,” Kaede said with a laugh, adjusting how she was sitting in the bed as much as she could now that she wasn’t holding the baby for herself. “You look like a natural holding her, Maki. I’d feel comfortable letting you do that as much as you want.”

Watching Maki tense up at the praise, Shuichi looked over to Kaede while shaking his head, not wanting to draw attention to what was happening but also not wanting things to escalate at all. “This is new to her, we can’t force her into it more than she wants, and I don’t think she wants it too much. Should we let one of them hold her now?” he asked, gesturing back towards where Kaito and Tenko were still standing, animosity tangible between them. “You can pick which one.”

“Tenko, without a doubt, but let Maki hold her a bit longer. There’s something that I—no, something that _we_ —need to tell them and I want Maki holding her for it.” Her smile was impossible to deny no matter how much Shuichi wanted to in that moment, but as he knew what it was that Kaede thought they needed to say he wasn’t going to tell her no. He nodded and sat down next to Maki, stroking a patch of hair on the baby’s head while the little girl stayed fast asleep in almost shaking arms that were holding her. “Okay, so can I tell them now? This has been the hardest secret to keep for the past little while…especially once they all came in here.”

“Tell them, she looks as peaceful as ever and this will make for a good first impression.” Pulling his hand back as he motioned for the others to draw nearer, Shuichi waited until he was surrounded by the two who were standing before sighing happily, a feeling of contentment taking over his body. “I think it’s time, Kaede. Right now.”

Without the attention on her, Kaede took a moment to collect her thoughts before she said, “I’ll take your word for it, Shuichi. Everyone, the beautiful girl you’re looking at, or holding if you’re Maki, is our daughter Aika. She’s been with us for not even half a day and we’re already so in love with her, and I really hope you all can be just as in love with her too.”

There was a pause as everyone let the name sink into their minds, before anyone said something about it. “That’s a fitting name for her, all things considered,” Maki mumbled, her eyes not pulling off of the baby’s tiny face. “It’s simple and cute, like her.”

“Simple and cute? That girl’s going to grow up to be a fighter, I can already see it!” Drawing her arms in close to herself, Tenko looked like she was going to squeal in excitement at what she had inevitably imagined baby Aika being like as she grew up. “I’m going to start thinking up ways I’ll teach her everything I know!”’

Their reactions were similar enough, but Kaito was the outlier in the happiness at the name reveal. “That’s…not really what I was expected to hear you say right there. She’s a mini Kaede, shouldn’t she have a name more like hers? Although, looking at her, doesn’t she look like she should be a mini Shuichi? This whole baby thing’s confusing, if we’re being honest.” He didn’t sound unhappy so much as he sounded very unsure of what was going on, and all Kaede could hope was that he’d eventually pick up using her actual name rather than the one he’d been calling her the whole time.

If he was going to do that, he certainly didn’t when it came time for him to finally hold her, because the moment she was set in his arms he looked at her and referred to her as “mini Kaede” without even a pause to consider correcting himself. “Her name’s Aika, you heard that earlier so you can start using it,” Maki scolded, not having gotten over how she felt when she was holding Aika for herself but also not going to stand for Kaito continuing being stupid about things. “Go ahead, say it right.”’

“But calling her mini Aika doesn’t have the same ring to it.” He tried moving how he was holding her, only for her eyes to flutter open and he found himself looking into them, their light gray color transfixing to him as he’d expected them to be pink-ish like her mother’s when he saw them. “Neither does calling her mini Kaede at this point, how’d you two manage to get a baby that’s a girl but looks like her dad?”

“Are you really that much of an idiot to not understand that girls don’t have to look like their moms?” Maki’s way of asking was a lot harsher than how anyone else would have, but Kaede was thankful she asked it that way so she didn’t have to try to, and Shuichi was feeling a bit annoyed at the insistence that something was weird about how the baby looked. “You’re a moron, Kaito, and you need to stop before your stupidity rubs off on this innocent baby while she can’t fight it.”

“I was just asking a question, no need to be so mean about it.” Those little baby eyes were still open, staring up at nothing in particular, and even though she was in unfamiliar arms surrounded by unfamiliar faces, she was staying quiet and calm. Of course, when her father took her back to hold her for himself, that was when she started fussing, and it was when she got to full-blown screaming that the guests decided they’d take their leave. They’d certainly been eager to meet Aika, but once the reality of having a baby around hit they didn’t want anything to do with her.

As they were working to calm her down, the fear that the abandonment would become a constant in the future crossed their minds, but they hoped everyone’s love of the little girl would override that possibility.

_thirty-eight_.

They spent the whole day there at the center, just so that they could have a full overnight for observation, and it seemed that every time they thought they’d have a quiet moment to relax people would come in, whether it was a doctor or another friend swinging by to check on them. That night was a breath of fresh air, and they were able to get a little more sleep than the previous one, but when morning came they cleared to go home as a family for the first time. There had been nothing to be concerned about regarding Aika, and as long as she kept to minimal activity for a couple of days Kaede would be mostly back to normal.

That ride home was nerve-wracking, Shuichi concerned the entire time that something would go wrong as he was driving his wife and daughter home, them both in the back seat along with all of the gifts people had brought for them. He knew that everything in his control would go well, but if someone else on the road decided to be reckless there would be little he could do. It did mean that he went way slower than he should have, but he got them to the house without incident and that was what mattered.

When they pulled up outside he saw a vehicle that he recognized as belonging to Kaito and Maki, but it looked to be empty from an initial glance. After helping Kaede out of the back seat and then working to get Aika and her carseat out, they decided to leave the gifts for him to come back to get and made their way to the front door—which he found to be unlocked when he opened it. It wasn’t in his nature to leave something unlocked when leaving, and they’d been gone for two days so if he had forgotten to lock the door behind them there was no guarantee that they’d have anything left inside. But the door being unlocked was not his fault after all, as when he’d pushed it open for Kaede to step inside, he heard her immediately say, “Oh, uh, what are you _doing_ here, Kaito? Who said that you could come over? How’d you even get in here?”

“Stuff, I decided myself, and the spare key outside. Same way as usual.” He was laughing as he responded, and Shuichi could only imagine what kind of trouble Kaito was responsible for causing inside the house if he’d been there by himself. That was the last straw for having that spare key in his mind, but even still that wasn’t the most concerning part about what was happening. The possibility of Kaito having come over to do something well-intentioned but poorly-executed was too high for him to feel comfortable about what he was walking into, but his arm wasn’t quite used to carrying the carseat yet and he needed to set it down before he accidentally dropped it.

The main room of the house looked almost exactly as they’d left it, except the craft materials strewn across the floor and the blackboard taken off of where it usually was hanging. Shuichi found the closest chair to the door and, after closing the door with his foot, worked quickly to get Aika out from her seatbelts so that he could hold her until Kaede got comfortable somewhere to hold her for herself. “Are you going to tell us why everything for the board is out like this?” he asked once he had Aika properly in his arms and could walk around with her. “Or is that something you’ll keep quiet?”

“Nah man, it’s something I did to help you out because I knew once you were back here, it would be hard for the two of you to do it yourselves.” Grinning as he saw two pairs of eyes looking at him confused, Kaito motioned towards the top part of the board, where he’d carefully removed the letters that had once said “baby”, replacing them with matching-colored letters that spelled “Aika” instead. “I was just changing that out, since it was gonna be a lot of work for whoever did it and, uh, Maki Roll wouldn’t stop givin’ me shit about not calling her Aika at first, so I thought it would…be a good thing for me to do.”

“That’s really sweet of you to do, and it teaches you a lesson at the same time,” Kaede said, from the only other chair in the room (which was a cushioned rocking chair that she was going back and forth in). “I mean, it was a little weird you being here without us here to keep you company, but you were here to do something nice so I guess it balances out.”

“Yeah, I should’ve warned you that I’d be here but I wasn’t thinking you’d be home today. No one told me moms and babies get to leave so quickly.” Kaito looked to where Shuichi was taking small steps to avoid everything on the floor while he was trying to get Aika over to her mother’s waiting arms, and he coughed to get his friend’s attention. “Look, I know I might’ve gone overboard on the mini thing, and I definitely went overboard with being excited because my sidekick’s a dad now, so I needed to apologize somehow.”

“That’s great, but why are you telling me this?” Shuichi couldn’t stop looking at the floor as he was talking, just because he wanted to be absolute sure he didn’t slip on anything, but he figured that Kaito wouldn’t mind that he wasn’t giving him his full, undivided attention at the moment. “I’m not the one that you were bothering with those things. If you’re going to apologize, you need to apologize to Kaede, not me.”

“That’d make sense, let me just…” Standing tall, looking over at Kaede as she waited patiently not for what he had to say but for who was getting brought over to her, Kaito gave her a thumbs-up before telling her, “I’m completely, totally sorry for anything I said to you about your baby that you hated hearing come from me. I didn’t mean to hurt you or bother you with any of it, and I mean that.”

“As long as I never hear you call Aika a mini-me again, I’ll forgive you.” She smiled at him for a moment before her face lit up completely at Aika being held right in front of her, the baby still asleep as if nothing was going on around her. “You were right that she’s more of a mini Shuichi, but she’s not actually a mini version of either of us. She’s her own person, and she’ll grow up how she wants, not how we want her.”

Shuichi nodded in agreement with her words, unable to see how Kaito was reacting to that decision but hoping that he was taking it well. “It’s hard when we’re both known so well for things that people want us to pass on to her, but we’ll make it work. We have to, we can’t force her to follow in either of our footsteps.”

“But teaching her to be like Kaede would mean she could play piano, and that’d be cool, don’t ya think?” Kaito’s question showed that he was at least comprehending what was happening to some degree, but he was not quite getting that they didn’t want her to be forced into doing something with her life. “Then you could have times where you all play together and that’d be awesome to hear about!”

“You’re right, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, Aika’s growing up how she wants and we’re not going to force her in any direction. If she wants to be a pianist, she can become one, but we’re not going to make her do it.” In the middle of setting the baby down in her mother’s arms, Shuichi froze and looked at Kaede with widened eyes. “You have to play the lullaby for her sometime soon, don’t forget that. Now that you can play it and call it its actual name, you have to do it.”

“You mean it’s not just called the lullaby or whatever?”

Kaede pursed her lips together as she drew her baby in closer to her, not wanting her to be too far away if she didn’t need to be. “No, Kaito, it’s not just called ‘the lullaby’. Since we decided on her name, we’ve known it’s called Aika’s Lullaby, and we’re…and she’s never going to know a life without it once I can sit down and play it for her.”

It could have been said that their first day home was rough, but thanks to Kaito’s insistence that he be there to help as much as he could things went smoother than they would have had he not been there. Having that extra pair of hands to assist when needed was useful, especially when it came time to finish what he had started in regards to the blackboard. While it would have been entirely possible for them to do most of what they wanted to by themselves, there was one specific aspect to it that would not have happened if Kaito wasn’t waiting around, ready to jump in wherever.

The board was back on the wall, all of the information about Aika’s birth written down so that everyone who was interested could see it, and Kaede was standing by it, holding the once-again sleeping baby in her arms as she was trying to decide on where she wanted to be when the picture was taken. “You know what, maybe it’s a good thing you’re still here,” Shuichi said, looking at Kaito and how he was reading the board for himself. “I’m thinking this would be a good picture for me to be in with them, so would you do us a favor and take it so I can do that?”

“Is that a stupid question? Of course I’ll help you out, it’s why I’m here!” Kaito was eager to get his hands on Shuichi’s phone to take the picture, but it took several minutes of coming up with a good arrangement of bodies and a few attempts at getting the picture right before they were satisfied with the results. He’d finally managed to get a shot where he hadn’t cut off anyone’s head, or he hadn’t missed the lower part of the board, or the phone hadn’t been jostled mid-picture, and he was very proud of his accomplishment. Very proud, and also ready to tell them how unimportant what he’d done was. “So, uh, we were supposed to tell you guys this a while back but we might’ve set up another real photoshoot for you all, so that you can have good pictures as a family.”

“That sounds like something Maki had more to do with than you did, but why? Aren’t these pictures we can take enough?” Now that the picture was over and she didn’t need to try to make herself look halfway decent, Kaede had sat down in the rocking chair and had positioned Aika so that she only needed one hand on her, while she was working to let her hair down from the bun it had been in almost nonstop for days. “I don’t know if I could do the whole professional pictures thing again for a while, last time was fun but now we have someone else to worry about and…”

Shuichi looked over at her, trying to deduce where she was going to go with that statement but coming up with nothing. “I think the point is so that we have the memories to look back on in the future. None of the pictures I’ve been taking are print quality, but professional ones are, and we could use some of those to send to friends or to hang up.”

“Okay, but going to do family pictures means I’ll have to look nice for them, and I don’t know if I’ll have the time or energy to make that happen.” To illustrate her point, Kaede ruffled some of her long, knotted hair that did not seem to want to come out of the bun it was in. “It’s a nice offer, but we might have to turn it down.”

“Nope, no turning it down, it’ll all work out, just you wait!” Grinning like he’d just given the most inspirational speech in history, Kaito proceeded to explain how things were going to happen, going as far as to tell them that they’d be able to get all the help they needed to make it go smoothly. He seemed a bit unclear on some of the details, but that was typical for him and they knew to ask Maki for clarification later, whenever they saw her next.

For being dumb and a bit difficult to handle, Kaito really wanted to do things right for the people he cared about, and that was appreciated more than he’d ever really know.

_thirty-nine_.

Aika was six days old and had not done much more than eat, sleep, and cry for all of those six days when the promised photography session happened. That day started with her, like clockwork, crying in her screechy way every two hours, regardless of what she’d been doing in the time before then, and it was a drain on both of her parents as they worked to find something to get her to stop crying. It took a lot of attempted feedings, a couple of changes, and more circles around the living room than could be counted, but eventually she stayed quiet and asleep for longer than she had at any point overnight, which would have been a good thing had it not been already almost noon. So when there was a knock at the door not long after she’d given in to her tiredness, the fear was that she’d be woken back up at the sound of whoever was there coming inside.

To their surprise, the person at the door was pleased that she was asleep, something that was explained once greetings and congratulations were given. “I’ve only done one of these newborn shoots before, so I’m a bit nervous about how well it’ll go, but if she’s sleeping now that should hopefully make it easier!” Mahiru’s voice was quiet to be respectful to the sleeping baby, but it was hard not to notice that she was excited about what she was there to do. “If she wakes up, then maybe we’ll be able to get a couple shots in of her with her eyes open without crying, but I’ve got nowhere to be until late tonight so I can take as long as I need to for this.”

It was nice to have the person there helping them be someone they’d gotten to know in a similar setting before, but it still didn’t mean that either of them fully trusted having Mahiru around Aika, let alone have her trying to move and pose her. She insisted that she could be relied on, and that they didn’t need to be so concerned that she was going to do anything wrong, but neither Kaede nor Shuichi would budge on their stance that they needed to be present, together, every moment that Mahiru was in the room. “We’ve barely been apart with some of our close friends over here, it’s nothing against you personally,” he explained after denying her request that one of them go freshen up so that they could get involved in the pictures for themselves.

“Don’t worry, I totally understand that! The other time I did one of these shoots, the parents wouldn’t let me be alone with their baby either, except that time there was security around as well so it was crowded and a little intense. At least this time there’s just the two of you here watching me.” A shudder went down Mahiru’s spine at the memory, before she looked at the makeshift set she’d created on the table in the kitchen, complete with backdrop and with easy access to the other materials she’d brought with her. “Anyway, here’s my plan, since you both don’t exactly look photo-ready and I don’t know if you ever will. You’re gonna set her on the table and we’re gonna put her in these different positions, which I’ll take pictures of as fast as I can while she’s still asleep.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Kaede said, looking at the light brown blanket that was draped over the table, “but at the same time, what if she wakes up as soon as I put her down?”

Mahiru thought for a second, before answering, “I mean, she probably will, but as long as she’s not crying we’re still good. I bet she’s ten times cuter when her eyes are open, and that means better pictures for you to share.” Her positivity showed that she was intent on making this photoshoot work to perfection, even with all the obstacles, and it was hard to not believe that she was going to make everything go as it needed to. “Set her down when you’re ready, then start looking through the box of props I brought for us to use. Your friends did a great job of telling me things that you guys might like to use, but you both get the final say.”

True to Kaede’s worry, Aika did seem to wake up as soon as she was put down on the blanket, no longer feeling the warmth of her mother’s arms wrapped around her, but she remained calm and lay there without crying until she fell back asleep. In the time it took for her to drift off once more, Mahiru was able to take a couple up-close pictures of her face, getting pictures with her eyes open, her lips squished together, her cheeks perfectly round and adorable. Once she was sleeping again, that was when Mahiru wanted to start taking pictures with props, and that meant picking some out quickly; thankfully, Shuichi had already looked at what was on the top of the box and had selected a few potential choices, the best one being a tiny blanket with butterflies all over it.

“I knew you’d want me to use that,” Mahiru admitted when she saw that he was holding it and showing it to Kaede, who was nodding at the selection. “The moment one of your friends gave me it and told me that butterflies were the theme, I had no doubt what I was going to do with that. But you’re going to have to both trust me to wrap her in it, okay? I need it to be on her a specific way and—”

“Why not let me do it, then?” Kaede’s interruption was done quietly, but she meant business by giving it. “As her mother, I think I can be trusted to get a blanket around her how someone thinks it should be done.”

“—I mean, you can do the wrapping yourself, but you have to listen to me when I tell you exactly how it needs to be for best photographing.” Not wanting to fight to get to do things herself, Mahiru seemed slightly annoyed at how she was being walked over but she wasn’t verbalizing that annoyance. “I’m just saying, I know how to handle myself around babies, especially ones this little. Just because this is my second official photoshoot like this doesn’t mean I haven’t done casual work with newborns before.”

“It would make me more comfortable if I wrapped her, sorry. Guess that’s a new mom thing that we’re going to have to work with.” Kaede held her hand out for Shuichi to give the blanket over to her, but he hesitated for a moment, only to pass it off to Mahiru instead. “Uh, excuse me? Didn’t I just say I was going to do it?”

He still hadn’t fully let go of the blanket, but by the time he spoke to explain himself his hand was off of it. “I heard you say that, sure, but I think letting Mahiru do it will be fine. I’m just as scared to let her as you are, but there’s no way we’ll get over these fears if we don’t face them head-on.”

“Deep down, I know you’re right about that, but since when did you start sounding super inspirational like Kaito? Has he really been around that much this week to start rubbing off on you?” Even though she didn’t like being ignored right then, Kaede tried her best to move past it without letting herself dwell on anything, yet she found herself growing irritated with the photoshoot as it went on. Every time Mahiru wanted to switch what was in the picture, she would try to offer to do it for her, but Shuichi would tell her to back off and just watch, to not get involved because she didn’t need to be. He was trying to let the photographer do her job the best she could, and it was bothersome because he was preventing Kaede from getting to make sure that her daughter was actually fine and not being disturbed by unfamiliar hands touching her.

It got to the point that she wordlessly, because she knew speaking would cause issues in her frustration, left the room, slamming the bedroom door shut when she entered it. “I should probably go check on her,” Shuichi remarked, glancing towards where the bedroom was located, but when he heard the water in the bathroom turn on he shook his head. “Never mind, maybe she’s going to get ready for whatever you actually need us for. Don’t want to stop her from doing that.”’

“So much for the two of you never both being in the room with your baby, but if she’s going to participate then I’m not going to say anything more about it.” Mahiru was not going to let the strange behavior around her bother her, not when the person who had been being most annoying was now out of the room for a moment. “While she’s gone, I could change the scene and we can do some surprise pictures for her to see when you guys get to look through all the shots. I have some cute signs that we could prop Aika up with, kind of like the one you have on your wall.”

“I think Kaede would appreciate that, if we can make it work.” His mind processing all the possible reactions she’d have to finding some pictures in the style of the ones she’d been so diligent in taking for herself, Shuichi wanted to put his trust in Mahiru and give her plan a shot, and so he did. Together they moved her, changed the setup they were working with, and got the baby laying back down on a new, pale purple blanket that worked very well with the pink onesie she had on. Once she was in position, Mahiru dug through her box of props until she emerged with a small blackboard in her hand, which was completely blank, and asked where the chalk was to write on it.

Emulating Kaede’s handwriting was difficult, but she managed to make it look somewhat convincing, putting Aika’s name and her very specific age on the board before leaning it against her. “There, now to make it perfect I’d, uh, position one of her hands on top to make it look like she’s holding it, but I know that you doing it would make everyone more comfortable,” Mahiru said, stepping back from the table to let Shuichi get in and do exactly as she’d suggested, a tiny hand resting on top of the board when he was finished. “Yeah, like that, you’re pretty good at this! You do a lot of photography with crime scenes or something? Or did you just get lucky?”

“All the pictures I take are already staged before I get to them, so we’ll call this luck.” His ears perking up to the absence of the sound of water running, he looked at Mahiru and waited to see if she was grabbing her camera or not. When she didn’t seem to move, he told her, “I think our chance of doing too much of this ‘secret’ stuff might be over, we need to get back to how it was before Kaede left, so she doesn’t suspect anything.”

“I’m sure I have time to get a few shots like this,” she replied, finally grabbing her camera and holding it to her face to take pictures. Everything seemed to be going well even with the rushing that she was having to do, but the moment she set her camera back down and went to start tearing down the set to rebuild it to how it had been before, they were faced with a problem that was going to be hard to explain. In those moments after the pictures were finished, Aika had decided right then that she was going to spit up on the part of the blanket closest to her face, and she looked like she was about to start crying because of it. Cleaning that mess was left to Mahiru, as Shuichi needed to pick the baby up and keep her from crying too loudly, just in case her whines made Kaede come check on her quicker.

It was doomed to fail from the start, because the moment he drew her in close to him she started giving that piercing cry that he was certain their neighbors could hear, louder than any piano playing ever had been. Miraculously, Mahiru was able to get the blanket switched back out and the sign cleaned off before Kaede reappeared in the room, her focus set exclusively on Aika and getting her back into her own arms. “How did I figure that she’d get upset while I was gone?” she asked, making it sound like they’d done something to cause the baby to cry, rather than her doing it all herself. “I’m sure she’s been missing her mom so much that she needs to spend time with me now to calm down.”

“That isn’t the truth at all, but you’re right that she needs to spend time with you.” Now that he had free arms again, Shuichi had pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time, something he was sure Kaede had done while she was gone as well. “It’s just like clockwork, we’ve said this a couple times now. She slept for a while, now she needs to eat.”

“And I’ll take care of that, so we’re putting these pictures on hold until she’s fed and happy!” Whatever had prompted Kaede to go take that shower had done them all a favor, because now she seemed at least a little okay with the idea of the photoshoot, but only time would tell if she was finally okay with not being the one most involved in everything. “Just make sure your camera doesn’t come anywhere near me while I’m doing this, got it, Mahiru?”

Her mind coming down from the panic of hiding the evidence of what they’d done, Mahiru gave an accepting nod at the request. “Of course! I know that a lot of people would love to see empowering images of a mother feeding her child, but I’m not going to surprise take those of you. When you’re done though, can we…um, maybe do a family photo or two? You look like you were able to clean yourself up and this would be a good time for Shuichi to do the same, but if you don’t want to that’s totally understandable!”

“Someone put you up to doing that, didn’t they?” she asked, as she was walking towards the rocking chair in the other part of the room. “Like…Kaito, perhaps? Maybe Tenko if you got involved with talking to her again, I don’t know who all set this up.”

“Both of them told me I had to, and then Tenko’s girlfriend gave me something to use when we get to it, but we’ll have to get there first, won’t we?” Keeping that gift secret was Mahiru’s plan to get Kaede to agree to the pictures, and when she heard an “oh, that makes sense” that was trying to be masked by the crying, she knew that she’d won. “I’ll just be looking through the pictures I’ve already taken to see which ones are keepers and which can be tossed, you both do what you need to do so we can be ready for this!”

“In that case, I suppose I should go clean up for myself, just to look as nice as the ladies I’ll be in the picture with.” Taking a step towards the bedroom, Shuichi was stopped by Mahiru’s hand shooting out towards him, fingers extended to give the impression that she was really trying to stop him. “What’s going on, do you still need me right now? Based on what you said, I thought that—”

“Yes, no, I don’t need you right now, but I do need you to do a favor for me!” Mahiru was looking straight at him, her eyes narrowed as she was thinking about what she was going to say. Her voice dropped low as she asked, “You should still have that shirt you got from me last time, don’t you? That’s kind of important to what I was told you guys need to do for your family picture, and if you don’t have it we’re going to have to improvise.”

He gave the largest shrug he could manage in response. “I’m sure I have it somewhere, but it might take some time to find it.”

“From what I understand, feeding a baby takes a while so you have the time.”

“You know what, you’re right. I’ll go figure out what I did with it, go take a shower for myself, and when I’m done it still might not be time to do anything.” He took another step away, Mahiru’s hand dropping as he did, and that gave him the clearance to go ahead and head to the bedroom. Before he closed the door, he looked over at Kaede and smiled in her direction, even though she was focused on what Aika was doing and not him.

When the door latched shut, however, she looked up to see that he was gone and sighed, rocking the chair back a bit. “I know that the two of you were out here doing something when I was gone, and I want to know what it was,” she said, the non-accusatory tone she’d spoken with taking Mahiru by surprise. “You didn’t seem to do anything _to_ my baby, so what did you plan? What am I going to be facing at some point?”

“It was a picture, you’ll see it when you see the rest,” Mahiru answered, figuring that was a safe enough thing to say to not cause much in terms of drama. “She was wide awake and posing beautifully, I couldn’t resist taking one specially for you because you missed seeing her like that.”

“Oh, well, thanks for thinking of me.” Her eyes drifting towards the piano, Kaede thought about how she’d been acting when Mahiru had first arrived there that day and immediately felt regret that she’d tried washing away already. She was being way too protective, this was someone that she should have been able to trust and she’d treated her like a complete stranger who meant to harm her child, not celebrate her. There was only one thing to do, and she swallowed her pride to do it without regret. “I’m sorry for acting like a spoiled brat earlier, I’m just super concerned with making sure Aika’s okay and I guess I forgot that there’s no way you’d intentionally hurt her.”

“I’m here to photograph her, having her crying kind of ruins what I’m supposed to be doing, but don’t worry I get it. Honestly I was surprised when you let me get her on the table, the other mom I did this for took a lot of convincing to make that happen.” Her hands were holding her camera tightly with the lens pointed down, just to give Kaede the peace of mind that she wasn’t having pictures taken of her right then. “If you want to keep being protective, that’s fine, but please just let me do things as I need them done, I don’t want to waste my time having to retake any pictures because of setup errors.”

Kaede went back to looking at Aika, the girl’s eyes heavy-lidded as she was starting to fall asleep in the middle of her feeding, and gave a soft laugh. “I hope I didn’t ruin anything then, I should’ve thought more about how this is what you do and what you’re best at. I’d hate if someone messed up something if they were helping me prepare for a show, so I don’t know why I didn’t think you’d hate the same thing.”

“It doesn’t occur to people that the reason photographers need things a certain way isn’t for their own good, it’s for the sake of the picture they’re taking.” Mahiru was flipping through the pictures to check if there were any she’d need to redo, but found that almost every scenario she’d created had at least one good take. “Don’t worry, you didn’t ruin anything by being a hover-mom, but there was the chance you could’ve so can we please not do that?”

“I’ll try not to, but no promises.” Her arm was beginning to fall asleep with how it was positioned to keep Aika from sliding at all, but there was nothing Kaede could do about it that wouldn’t wake the baby up, and she didn’t want to do that unless it was necessary. “I’m not even sure we’ll be able to continue at this rate, little girl’s fast asleep.”

Without looking, Mahiru replied, “And if she wasn’t still attached to you, I’d be able to get pictures of her perfect little face, but I can’t do that without sacrificing your modesty.” Realizing immediately that she sounded slightly annoyed with what she’d just said, she wanted to apologize and reword her statement, but Kaede’s laugh told her that she’d done nothing wrong.

“Do you really think I have much in the way of modesty at this point? I mean, please don’t take any pictures of me right now, but after this past week I can’t say I have much modesty to my name at all.” Hoping that she wasn’t going to be disregarded (and based on how Mahiru didn’t turn at all, she figured she wasn’t going to be), Kaede continued looking at Aika, hoping that she’d wake back up so they could finish the feeding and get back to what they were supposed to be doing. “I’m glad that the doctors and nurses had the sense to not ask me to uncover when anyone else was in the room, but…”

“Oh ew, that would have been awkward if they had made you do that!” Mahiru had to set her camera down as she violently shivered at the thought of being present while someone was in that particular position, but once she got over that idea she went right back to looking at her pictures. “I’ve been asked about birth photography before, for scientific magazine purposes, and I guess I never thought about how that would really work. I’d be taking pictures of some poor woman’s body doing some crazy things, but imagine how she’d feel knowing that strangers would be seeing that!”

Once again Kaede laughed, thinking about what she clearly remembered of being in that position. “Strangers would be seeing it all anyway, it’s not like you’re friendly with your doctors before they’re down there. If the situation hadn’t been how it was, it would have been only strangers seeing things, but I couldn’t exactly tell Shuichi not to go watch.”

“He watched? Willingly?” Now all Mahiru was thinking about was making that choice to watch a birth without having the excuse of photographing it for science, and many questions were being raised in her mind, the biggest one a curious question of why someone would ever think to do that.

She did get her chance to ask it when Shuichi came back into the room, wearing the exact shirt she’d told him he needed, but she wasn’t quick enough to say anything. “Wait a second, why’s he wearing that?” Kaede asked, having been watching that doorway from the moment she heard the doorknob start to turn. “Wasn’t that something we did to be cute last time we had pictures taken?”

“It was, but someone asked if I could get you all to wear them this time.” Grabbing a bag out of her prop box, Mahiru stood up and tossed it towards Shuichi, who caught it by his fingertips. “Open that, there’s a new shirt for Kaede in there as well as one for Aika, just so the three of you are matching for at least one picture.”

“And that would explain why me needing to find mine was important, if there’s only ones for them in here,” Shuichi said, tearing the bag open to see that Mahiru was correct and that there were only two shirts inside. The one for Kaede matched his exactly, and he intended on giving it to her as soon as she’d be able to change into it, but the smaller one was a bit different in that, in addition to the “Saihara Squad” printed on it, there was a small butterfly beneath the text. “She’s going to be drowning in this shirt, it’s going to be huge on her.”

“No one said it was going to fit properly, now did they?” Again Mahiru was sounding a bit annoyed, but her question was meant to be more joking than anything. “I have to step outside to make a call to the client I have later tonight, you figure out how you’re going to get those shirts on and we’ll take the picture when I get back.” She left without looking at either of them, presumably because she didn’t want to get distracted or see anything she wasn’t meant to see; when she re-entered the house not even five minutes later she saw that how they were situated had changed, and there was the sound of piano music filling the air.

She stopped herself in the doorway when she saw that Shuichi was holding Aika, her definitely “drowning” in that shirt she was supposed to be wearing, while Kaede was at the piano, slowly and intentionally playing a song that she seemed invested in. Taking impromptu pictures wasn’t something that Mahiru intended on doing that day but she was thankful she was wearing her camera on a neck strap as she took a couple shots of the scene before announcing her return. The only benefit to the posed pictures she ended up taking of the family was that she could see all three faces, rather than the two in the piano pictures, but she had a feeling she’d be sending them the best versions of both.

There wasn’t much else for her to do after that, aside from a final round of solo pictures with a couple other props for Aika to pose with, in a little dress that made her look more like a doll than a real baby. Since she was full and sleepy, she wasn’t hard to work with at all, and now that an agreement had been made on posing her Mahiru was able to work a lot quicker than she had been before. Once she wrapped up with those last shots she was ready to call it a day, having spent several hours there with not exactly a lot to show for it.

“I hope this isn’t the last time our paths cross like this,” she said after she’d packed up all of her belongings and was headed to the door once more, this time to actually leave. “Your friends know how to contact me, so if you ever want more pictures just have them tell me so and I’ll do it. You’re such an easy family to work with, and I hope I get to see Aika as she grows up. She’s going to be a beautiful little girl, I’m so happy for you both.”

“We’re happy about her as well, and don’t worry, you’re the only person we’d trust to come in and take pictures of her…and of us.” Shuichi looked to Kaede to make sure he wasn’t lying, but based on how she had grabbed Aika’s hand and was making her wave farewell to Mahiru, he had a feeling that he was more than correct in what he’d said.

_forty._

The day that Aika turned a month old was the next time the blackboard was touched, and that meant that for the entire first month she was in their lives, it was a reminder of that long night bringing her into the world. But when it had been a month since then, Kaede took the time to get it off the wall, to erase everything that was on it, and to write new information about the baby they’d gotten to know. “I was looking into it, moms do this sort of thing all the time so it’s not weird,” she explained as she was in the middle of writing something about things that Aika liked on the board, Shuichi looking down at her while holding the girl in his arms. “I mean, usually they do it on something that can be easily posed with, but I posed with this for months, she can do it too.”

“Sounds like you’re going to make one of us help get her in frame, aren’t you?” he asked, not surprised that she’d make such a plan but also wishing that she wouldn’t have. “I get that you want to do all these cool things with her, but maybe doing something different this time would work better?”

“No way, this’ll be perfect the way it is. We don’t want to copy what everyone else does exactly, and this is what people expect from us.” With a flourish she lifted her chalk from the board, her letters neat and orderly as always, and she tilted her head up to look directly at Shuichi, who started to get flustered at the smile she was giving him. “Whoa, what’s that blush for? Can’t I just look at you without you getting all weird?”

“You can, it’s just that…you’re so happy right now, Kaede, and I love seeing you like this.” It was a common occurrence for her to be happy, but it wasn’t every day that she was radiating that genuine happiness off of her without something major prompting it. He tried hiding his face in his shoulder but given how they were positioned, she was going to be able to see him anyway, so he did the next best thing and turned away, her giving a soft _oh_ as he did. “Don’t feel bad, I don’t want to be a distraction from your work.”

She looked down at the mostly-finished writing before shaking her head, bringing herself to standing in a matter of seconds. “You’re not a distraction, promise. I’m almost done anyway and it’s not like there’s a time limit on this so just let me keep looking at you, will you?” She was trying to convince him to turn back around, but Shuichi was going to hold firm in his choice to not be facing her at the moment, his cheeks still fiery red from the look they’d exchanged. “Please, it’s not every day that I get this chance anymore, not when you work so much that you’re barely home.”

“You still see me when I’m here, you could do this any time you wanted.” While it was true that he did spend a lot more time than he ever had working on different cases, he was still home in the evenings and spent the early morning hours tending to Aika as needed so that Kaede could get some sleep. To say that he was barely home was a bit of an exaggeration, but he knew why she was doing it. “And, uh, if you’re trying to get something out of me, it’s a bad time for it right now, seeing as we’re here alone and we have a child to care for.”

“Me, trying to get something out of you? That’s crazy talk, Shuichi, I would never!” She knew he could call her out on that lie, as they’d talked about giving in and trusting a friend to babysit for even a couple of hours to let them have some quality private time together (in the cleanest sense imaginable, as much as she hated to admit to it), but they’d decided it against it just because they felt it was their responsibility as parents to spend as much time as they could with their baby. Even without him looking at her she knew that he was judging her words, trying to come up with the best way to refute her claims, and to keep herself from digging a deeper hole she got back down on her knees and resumed work on the board.

At the sound of the chalk running across the board’s surface, Shuichi took a step away from her and closer to the small bedroom that had yet to be properly used. “You keep working there, I’m going to see if there’s anything in Aika’s room that would help with our posing problem. Certainly someone had to have given us a big toy or something that we could use.”

“I know we got a blanket with months marked on it, can’t remember who gave us that, but it would make a nice backdrop if you find it!” He nodded, committing that suggestion to memory as he walked into the bedroom, the natural light from the window making the walls seem even lighter than they were. The only time they ever came in there was to get clothes to change Aika into, as she currently slept in their room and was too small for any of her toys that she’d already acquired, and so it was unusual for her to be carried in there. Her eyes were squinted closed due to the light, but it wasn’t like she was big enough to understand or appreciate the decorations on her walls or the furniture that was waiting for her to use it.

The blanket that Kaede had mentioned was hanging on the edge of the crib, but that was it for things that could have been deemed useful in Shuichi’s mind—until he looked on one of the shelves and saw a robot he’d honestly forgotten they’d been given. “I wonder if Miu designed this to assist with taking pictures,” he said to himself as he approached the robot, looking at it with suspicious eyes. “If we handed it a phone, would it take a picture, or would it do as Miu herself would and send things to people who don’t need them?”

While it was tempting to see what the robot could do, the last thing he needed was to cause some sort of issue with pictures being distributed in ways that were unapproved, and so leaving the robot on the shelf remained the best course of action. He did look at some of the other things that were sitting in there, untouched because they’d yet to need any of them, and he couldn’t wait for the day when she could play with some of the things they had for her, even the things as simple as floor mats with tiny toys attached. “Someday this room will be just as big of a mess as it was before, but it’ll be for a good reason,” he murmured, leaning his head down to kiss the dark hair on the top of Aika’s head, her still completely unfazed by anything there in the room. “You’ll love it when you get to use it, I know you will.”

“Are you getting distracted in there, Shuichi? Hurry up and get back out here with that blanket!” Kaede called from the other room, making him jump slightly and jostle Aika to looking up at him with the widest eyes she could manage given the light, the darkening color of her irises reminding him just how much this little girl was going to look like him as she aged. He grabbed the blanket off of the crib, feeling that there was some sort of bag attached to it that he wasn’t going to be able to separate with one hand, and headed back out to where Kaede was impatiently waiting for him. “Took you long enough, what were you even doing in there?”

“Looking at things, nothing important,” he answered, walking up to her and gently setting the blanket on her head, making her laugh as she took it off and unfolded it. “I hope that’s what you were asking for, it was the only blanket in there that fit the description.”

“It’s definitely it, thank you!” Her arms were outstretched as she was holding the length of the blanket, looking at what was written on it, and due to how it was being raised he could see the mesh bag stitched into the seam on the back, containing what looked to be markers for the blanket. She noticed that as well and tore into the bag, pulling out several small butterfly-shaped pieces that had many matching others still in the bag. “Well, whoever put this together for us definitely knew what the theme was, and it’s a good thing we stuck with it or else this would be weird.”

“It would be great to thank whoever got it for us, but…” He already knew that she didn’t remember who had, and he’d been so overwhelmed with the love that they’d been shown with all the gifts that he could barely remember who all had gotten them even the big things, let alone small pieces like the blanket. Realizing that he’d trailed off, he cleared his throat and nodded towards Kaede. “Glad it’s going to work, though. Since I think you might have a plan, do you want to set everything up so we can get these pictures done?”

“It’s not much in the way of setting things up, I’m just going to lay this on the floor, put her on top of it, and have the board on the other side, Then we take the picture from the top and call it good.” Kaede was getting to her feet, trying not to drop anything as she stood up, and once she was standing she was looking around for a clear spot on the floor to lay the blanket. What ended up happening was needing to move the piano bench a little, to clear up enough space to get the blanket down and fully spread out. Once it was positioned properly, she dragged the blackboard over to it, setting it opposite the spot on the blanket where the numbers of the months were printed, and then she was back on the floor, putting the butterfly markers around the 1 on the blanket.

It was only when she had them perfectly arranged that she stood back up and gestured towards her handiwork, grinning at Shuichi as he looked down at it. “Now all we need is a baby to take a picture with it all,” she told him, moving her hand to motion towards the gap between the numbers and the board. “Not like she’ll be moving around, so that should be enough room. You wanna set her down while I go find something to dress her in for the occasion? Or do you want to be in charge of picking her outfit?”

“You can do it, I’ll get what she’s wearing off so it’s an easy switch.” That decision was made easily, and as Kaede headed off to find whatever outfit she had in mind, he bent down and set Aika right in between the two obstacles, beginning to undo the snaps on her onesie to get her out of it. She was staring up at him, her little eyes focused on the only face she had in view, and while her stare was blank it was warming his heart to know that she was looking at him and most likely knew who he was. “I wish I wasn’t going to have to break your concentration there, but if I don’t then your mom’s going to be unhappy when she gets back. We don’t want that, now do we?”

If she were older, perhaps the questioning tone of his voice would have been enough to get her to giggle or move around, but Aika had no idea what was happening and only knew that the person she was staring at was making noise, and so her eyes remained locked on his face. Even when he carefully got her clothes off of her she didn’t fuss or react much, maintaining that focus as well as she could with those beautifully-lashed eyes that were impossible to look away from. Somehow they’d managed to make the most adorable baby he’d ever seen—and perhaps he was a _bit_ biased on that—and the fact that she was a month old was hard to wrap his head around. It felt like it was just the other day that she was born, that she hadn’t been home for very long at all, that all the time he’d gotten to spend with her had passed by in a flash.

“Are you going to move to let me dress her, or are you going to do it yourself?” He didn’t know how long he’d gotten lost in staring at their daughter, but if Kaede was back it must have been at least a few minutes. Sheepishly, he moved aside and let her kneel down in front of the girl, her eyes fixating on the new face in view but her expression remaining rather plain even in the presence of her mother. “Aw, I can’t wait until she finds her smile, she’s going to be even cuter when she does. But for now, we get to dress her up and make her as cute as we can on our own!”

“Something tells me we’ll be thinking she’s cute at every milestone she hits,” he said, his heart nearly bursting with love at how much he enjoyed hearing Kaede be so passionate about something that wasn’t her music. “Now get whatever outfit you picked out on her, we should get these pictures done before she gets hungry, since it’s been about—”

Kaede shushed him before he was able to finish his sentence, as she got to work delicately putting the little dress she’d selected on the slightly-wiggling girl on the floor. “Don’t say it, she knows when you’re talking about feeding her. We’re going to get through this and then we’ll deal with that.”

True to what they were discussing, it was at about the time that the first picture was taken that Aika’s face began to contort into her pre-crying expression, and it was nearly impossible to get her to remain neutral-at-best for any subsequent pictures. The first one was usable, though, so any following shots that were imperfect were fine, and while Kaede was rushing to get her fed so that she didn’t start crying too much, Shuichi was left looking at the picture they’d gotten, making sure it was good enough to share.

Their friends had gotten treated to so many pictures of the girl over the past month that this might have seemed like just another one to add to their collection, but it felt awfully special looking at it before posting it for the world to see. Her board had her name in those red-and-purple letters, as well as all the information that Kaede had been able to compile about milestones and how she was doing, and then the blanket had her age clearly marked. It was impossible to ignore that their precious Aika was a month old, and with how fast that month had flown by, waiting to see what came next didn’t feel like too much of a challenge.

“Something tells me that we’ll have fun doing this every month,” he said as he posted the picture, looking to Kaede to see her reaction to that. She didn’t seem to notice that he’d said anything at all, her attention all on the little girl that was nursing at her chest and not on anyone or anything else in the room. She’d taken to being a mother so well that it was hard to remember that she’d only been doing this for such a short period of time. One month wasn’t that long at all, yet both of their hearts knew nothing but love for the child they’d created and were raising together, and that was never going to change.

_forty-one_.

It seemed that every week, if not every day, Aika was learning something new about herself or the world around her. First it was a big, toothless smile that her face would erupt into whenever she’d see something she liked. Then came her hands, which she’d already been putting into her mouth at times, learning to grab things around her but have no sense of what to do once her tiny fist was clenched around something that wasn’t a finger in front of her face. Then came the wriggling, trying to move around without being able to do much to get anywhere beside kick her feet and throw her arms around until someone picked her up and carried her. She still cried, ate, and slept most of the time, but those moments where she’d be on her stomach, trying to get better about holding her head up while flailing her arms, or where she’d be laying on her back transfixed with whatever was closest to her limited line of vision, those were the moments her parents cherished most.

A close second for moments worth cherishing were the ones where she’d be being held by one of her parents—either in her father’s arms, or wrapped up against her mother’s chest in a carrier they’d been gifted—and they’d all be sitting at the piano together. While it was true that Kaede would sit there and play alone with Aika at times, it was much sweeter when Shuichi was there to join them, even though he didn’t do anything more than take up space on the bench. Sometimes she played some of her favorite songs, but most of the time she’d be playing the lullaby specifically written for Aika, which the baby didn’t understand the meaning behind nor did she care. That was going to be the song she’d never forget, her mother was going to make sure of that, and so she made it a point to constantly play it for her whenever she could.

There were occasions when there would be more of an audience to listen to the music, and it was at those times that the only person at the piano would be Kaede, and anyone else who was present was in charge of tending to Aika. If it was Kaito and Maki there, he’d be the one holding the girl and playing with her like she was his favorite toy, while Maki would watch him from a couple feet away to keep her distance, her still not entirely sold on the baby but not actively disliking her by any means. If it was Tenko and Himiko, they’d share the duties of holding her, but more often than not it was Himiko doing the holding while Tenko went on and on about how cute her girlfriend was when holding a baby. And if it were all four of them at once, then Tenko and Kaito would argue over who would get to spend time with her and she would end up in Himiko’s arms anyway.

To grow up with so many people around willing to care for her would definitely be a positive later in her life, but at such a young age Aika wasn’t aware of how fiercely she was loved by her parents and their friends. She only knew that her needs were being met, and that she was given food, clothing, and a lot of comfortable places to sleep, and for the moment that was all that mattered. Learning to appreciate everyone in her life, even the ones who tried keeping space between themselves and her, would come as she got older. But as long as she was a baby, she would never quite understand how wonderful her life really was.

That didn’t mean that her parents didn’t try to teach her that lesson long before she was ready for it, and that was why the piano time was so important, why getting to bond with all those other adults mattered as much as it did. They wanted her to never know the feeling of being alone, of not having someone to support her, of not having places to turn if she needed help or just someone to be with. Learning voices, learning the specific touches and gestures of each person in her life, that was all important in their minds; even though they tried to give everyone they were close with equal opportunities to build those bonds, it was a foregone conclusion that the people she was meant to know best were her parents. It was easier for her to become reliant on her mother, but every time that Kaede had to spend all day with her she wished that she could share that kind of time with Shuichi, so that the girl knew both her parents loved her the same.

For weeks she tried arranging a day where he could spend most of the time with Aika, not so that she could do her own things but so that he could get to bond with her more. These plans were thwarted every time because of outside influence, be it a case he picked up at work or friends dropping by unexpectedly, and it became frustrating to Kaede that she wasn’t able to give the love of her life the opportunity to spend time with his daughter like he deserved. A solution came when a familiar date rolled around, and she was able to convince him to take the day off just to have a relaxing day at home, telling all of their friends that any celebrations to mark the occasion would have to wait until that evening.

Figuring that he’d been told to take his birthday off for reasons of their whole social group planning something, Shuichi went along with Kaede’s not-so-subtle attempts to get him to stay home that day. It came as a surprise, then, when he was woken up not by loud talkers trying to coordinate their gift to him but rather a gentle stroke of his hair by skilled fingers, accompanied by a soft whisper when he’d opened his eyes that he looked so peaceful when he was sleeping. “You’re not the face I was expecting to see, but you’re the one I prefer in this situation,” he admitted, rubbing his eyes to wake himself up, as Kaede laughed and continued running her hand through his hair. “Where’s everyone else, I know that you’ve got them around here somewhere.”

“Nope, you’ve deduced wrong for once in your life,” she replied, pulling her hand back so that she could carefully move Aika from where she was on her lap to laying on top of her father’s chest, the little girl’s eyes shining as she stared at him. “I’m giving you today to spend all the time you want with your daughter, because you need it. It’s unfair that I spend all day, every day with her, and I’m pretty sure Kaito’s spent more time with her recently than you have.”

“Doesn’t help that he doesn’t have a real job and comes over all the time.” It was impossible to not be in a good mood when looking into Aika’s perfect little face, her cheeks rosy as she was giving him that big smile she’d mastered. “But this is a nice present, thank you for doing this for me, Kaede.”

“You deserve it, you really do.” She let her gaze linger on him for a moment, seeing the genuine love he was expressing as he stared into their daughter’s eyes, before she shook her head and got off of the bed. “I’m going to go see if there are going to be plans later, since it _is_ your birthday and all. Enjoy your time with Aika, don’t forget that if you need anything I’ll still definitely be around.” Making it most of the way to the door before freezing and turning on a dime, Kaede rushed back over to Shuichi’s side, bending down and going in for a kiss, expecting to connect with his forehead as a cute gesture.

When they locked lips instead, him foreseeing what she was about to do and moving his head so their mouths could meet, their kiss lasted several seconds and was only broken by what was undeniably an attempt at a giggle coming from the girl on his chest. They both looked at her in surprise, then at each other, asking wordlessly if what they’d heard really had happened, if she’d gotten that close to an actual laugh while they were both distracted. Nothing else followed, Aika once again staring with a smile at her father’s face, and so Kaede actually left the room to do as she’d said, which meant that Shuichi remained laying there, the smiling girl comfortable where she was on top of him.

“Someday you’re going to be too big for this, and I’m going to miss when you weren’t,” he said as he brought a hand to rest on her back, her kicking her feet in response to the new contact. “I never would have guessed that this would be something I’d enjoy, but…you changed everything, Aika. You really did.”

She was too young to begin grasping his words, but she could tell that he was saying something and her limbs were flailing around to show how much she loved the sound. He put his lips together as he watched her, thinking about how this girl really had changed everything in their lives—and how he’d officially known about that change for exactly a year as of that night. “I don’t know what life would be like right now without you, and I don’t want to imagine it. We went through a lot to get to meet you, but you’ve been worth everything and more.”

Her flailing stopped as he adjusted how he was laying, so that he was sitting up a bit more and could look into her face better without having to crane his neck too much. “I know that your mom thinks that you should get to be your own person, but I think that you should learn to be good with the things the both of us love. A pianist detective, solving crimes and playing music, wouldn’t that sound lovely?” He poked the tip of her small nose as he asked his question, her going cross-eyed at the touch before her face burst into that smile again. “I wouldn’t be upset if you didn’t do that, don’t worry. You’re allowed to do your own thing.”

As she stared at him, her little world so peaceful and happy in that moment, Shuichi found himself overcome with multiple emotions that he wasn’t quite sure how to process. He wanted to keep talking to the girl, letting her hear his voice and get more familiar with it, but he felt that it was silly to spend his time doing that. There was also the desire to fall silent and keep watching her doing whatever her heart contented, but that was something he did when someone else was holding her in his presence, and he could do that anytime. The love he had for his little girl was so strong, so pure, that he wanted to do everything and anything for her, but also do nothing at all to treasure the time they had together.

“I’m so glad I get to be your dad,” he said, leaning in to nuzzle his nose against her, and when it made contact he heard the unmistakable sound of a genuine laugh come from her, quiet and unexpected but a laugh all the same. Pulling back at the sound, he found himself staring at her with his head tilted as her eyes crinkled at how big her smile was, how high her cheeks were being pushed. No matter what was to follow, hearing his daughter laugh for the first time was the best birthday present he could have gotten that year, alongside getting to spend the day with her in the first place.

There was one fleeting thought in his mind, at about the same time he decided he should get up and let Kaede know what had happened: perhaps once the laughter became a more regular occurrence, the next song written for Aika could be based on the sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sad that this fic is finished, I had a lot of fun writing it over the course of three weeks earlier this year and it is probably the best example of pure babyfic I've ever written.  
> if you gave kudos or left a comment at any point, please know that you lit my life up by doing so, seeing that feedback on my story means the world to me.  
> also!! you may have noticed that there is a picture here at the end of the fic! (points to you if you know exactly where it fits into the story!) go back and look at all of the previous chapters and see the art I've added to those! these are illustrations I drew to go along with the fic, chapter by chapter. eventually I'll post them somewhere else I'm sure, but for now...here ya go!


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